151+ Funniest Halloween Jokes 2020 Best Halloween Puns

I was shopping at a flea market, looking for some old cartoons when I came across a particular seller with a lovely selection. I am a big fan of Popeye The Sailorman, Betty Boop cartoons and the occasional Disney short from the 1920's to 30's.
She had many of these as well as some things I had never even heard of. She was an elderly woman, wild hair but a kind face. She smelled strongly of perfume and the typical old people smell, you know the one.
I made small talk with her, her scratchy but gentle voice kept my attention. I asked her about the discs and VHS tapes. She gave sometimes useful and sometimes not so useful answers.
There was this one CD that had the words "Cammie Candy. Secret Sweetheart" written in red marker. I was curious so I asked the old woman what it was to which she explained that her son had gotten that from a friend of his but now he had moved out and had said she could sell his old cartoons.
I made small talk, bought my things then took them home with me.
I spent that same night enjoying my spoils when that CD came to mind again. I had my snacks in place and heated blanket on high considering it was cold that night.
I checked over the CD. The disc was a little scratched but nothing too bad so I cleaned it up then popped it in the DVD player.
I sat on my couch, pressing play while I swaddled myself in my blanket.
The episode played a cutesy, upbeat song. It seemed old, definitely a 30's cartoon judging by the sound quality and lack of color. Then she popped on screen. Cammie Candy was sitting cutely by the title card of the Episode. She was adorable, blowing a kiss our way and giving a little wave.
The episode started with her getting dressed, I had not expected to see such pinup-like shots of her I recalled Betty Boop cartoons doing a similar thing though not being so bold.
She was singing a little song about how love was in the air and she hoped to find a boyfriend soon since it was nearing Valentines Day. She had gotten dressed when she heard a knock at the door. The animation was very good as she hurried along to meet whomever was knocking on her door.
She opens the door, whoever is at her residence has been obstructed though their hand comes into the frame and offers her a letter as well as a rose.
She cheerfully accepts them both, giving whoever came to the door a tip then closing it as the hand retreated along with the closing door.
She sat down in her plush chair to read out a love letter written by a secret admirer, jumping for joy as she sang a short reprise about having found a boyfriend before realising she didnt actually know who it was.
I missed a bit when I got a text from someone but didnt go back considering it was an unimportant scene of her dolling up then rushing out the door after doing some chores that had your typical living furniture jokes expected of a rubber hose style cartoon
Cammie held her rose, sniffing it as couples and men passed by, fawning over her as she pondered who it could be.
She started stopping single men to ask if it was them who sent her the rose but they either apologized and denied it or took it as an opportunity to flirt with her which earned them a stern talking to or a smack. I took this chance to take a picture of her.
Cammie
We soon cut to later that night when she is talking with a male friend of her's inside her little house. He appeared to be a man with some kind of cake for a head. Apparently his name was Edgar. He just comforted her, smiling in a calming way as she tearfully spoke about how she couldn't find the man who sent her the rose.
He suggested some people but she shook her head, telling him about how they confirmed that they did not send the rose.
He thought for a bit more before a worried look came upon his face, he bit his lip as he nervously looked at the rose. Cammie seemed confused at his expression then asked. "What's with the face?" He rubs the back of his neck before saying "There is... one person you havent asked..." He trailed off as she leans forward.
"Who is it? Who is it?" She asks in an excitable manner. Her excitement is soon dulled when her friend says the name he is thinking of. "Salem Crowcircle." He whispered to which he earned a light flick to the nose (it appeared to be a strawberry nose). "Don't joke like that! You'll make me faint!"
He chuckled but kept frowning while saying. "I'm not joking though. He's the only one we havent seen yet." And so they decided to go see him along with another friend of their's named Silas.
Cammie, Edgar and Silas proceeded down a spooky forest. I had sat up, shoveling some popcorn into my mouth as I watched in suspense. Cammie was the main focus, losing her friends in the thick fog that seemed to be prevelant in the creepy forest.
Silas dicked around and made rude, crude jokes to his friends. He teased and pissed them off but they seemed to love him regardless.
She bumped into someone, apologizing before looking up then yelping when she saw their face.
We got a look as well and it appeared we had found Salem. He had a french plague doctor's mask on of which he removed to reveal a rather disheveled looking man with a crystal ball for a head.
It was cracked, scratched and broken. He was cloaked in black and towered over Cammie though Cammie already appeared to be a smaller character so compared to her? He almost looked monstorous.
"What are you doing here?" Salem spoke gently but his voice was deep, it startled me a little sheerly from the unexpected tone.
Cammie stammered on about how she was wondering if he had sent her the rose and letter.
He politely asked for the rose then proceeded to inspect it while he delicately rolled it between his claws, placing it back into her hands in a gentlemanly and tender manner.
He knelt to her level, shaking his head before stating. "You have caught the eyes of someone who is not of this world. It appears a dangerous creature has been charmed by you Miss. Candy... I advise you leave this forest before you are harmed. This is no place for a sugary woman to be wandering about with some equally sweet friends... You are all bound to be harmed in some way..."
Cammie looked startled as she stared into Salem's tired eyes. They were glazed, suggesting that he was hard of seeing. A sound offscreen caught all of our attention. He put the mask back on, looking behind him then stood up.
"Who goes there?" Salem called out into the darkness to find Edgar hurrying over to them with something on him. I heard heavy weeping from him, whoever was voice acting for him had done an excellent job in making him sound as if he had seen something beyond horrific.
I believed at the time that this was some kind of Halloween episode... I still have my theories.
Cammie cried out, running to Edgar then panicked when she saw him soaked in something dark. She turned to Salem who was walking towards them, Cammie screamed that Edgar... Was covered in blood.
Edgar was sobbing profusely, shaking. The events were loud enough that I turned my volume down to avoid neighbors believing someone was getting murdered in my home.
Salem led them out of the forest then returned to it to presumably go find Silas. Cammie wept profusely as Edgar told her about how he had been searching for Silas when he slipped and fell in blood. He had tried following the trail but it had led to a dead end.
I was now very interested, this wasn't your typical 30's cartoon. This was very adult and very dark and I was starting to enjoy it. I didn't think much of it as I had seen old adult cartoons and assumed this was of the same breed of shows from that era.
Cammie had left Edgar to go find Silas, I had not been fond of Silas as he had been a dick in all of the three minutes we got to know him so I was hoping they wouldn't find him.
Cammie ended up going into a cave. Upon reaching the end, she pulled out some matches and attempted to light them.
She soon succeeded only to end up screaming and crying as she saw Silas's vicera crudely strewn out before her in the shape of a heart.
I stared in awe, someone had expertly shaded and drawn his organs and body parts in great detail. I have seen a great deal of adult swim and your typical "edgy" horror videos but I had never seen something like this from this era.
She choked and sobbed as she stared in horror.
She started to realise pieces were missing then opted to find them so he could have a proper burial.
"He always wanted an open casket funeral." She choked through her tears as she searched the cave then came to find his organs were all in some sort of "romantic" art aimed towards her.
I felt something in my stomach twist, not sickness but like my insides were burning up.
She viewed in horror as she passed his heart nailed to a wall with the words "My heart bleeds for you." Carved below it.
She collected it then proceeded on to see his eyes hanging on the wall with the words "You're the only one I see." Carved around them. She collected those then hurried along.
She reached his appendix of which made her look angry as she read. "They are useless and easily removable." She fumed tearfully as she finally got to the brain. "You are forever, brilliant, unique."
She was backing away when she bumped into someone once again. "Salem?" She whimpered, she looked up and came face to face with the decaying face of a nameless character. He appeared to be some kind of skeletal horned animal but I wasnt sure what as his horns appeared splintered and broken.
She screamed but her scream was muffled by a hand, the creature explained how he had done this for her. "You are everything I have ever wanted, beautiful... obedient... I desire you so strongly..." He sounded desperate as this nameless creature nuzzled her cheek in a possessive manner. "Be mine Camella Candy and I will allow your friend to live... Deny me and he will die." He said as he tugged her fluffy hair as if he was threatening to rip it out.
I started noticing Cammie's expression go from upset to a slow... boiling... rage. I felt similarly though I didn't know why. Feeling my hands angrily grip the cushion of my chair through clenched teeth.
I felt myself jump as Cammie whipped around then bit down on his hand. It came out of nowhere as the creature released her, screaming in agony. The screen proceeded to do a close up of her face. Creepy
I stared in awe, looking at the realism in Cammie's face as well as her animated breathing and spittle.
She then proceeded to lunge at him then bit his neck. She tore his throat wide open. I actually felt a little sick as she maliciously tore this man apart.
By the time it was over, she stood up and wiped her mouth, looking to the organs on the ground.
She collected her friend's pieces and left the cave, carrying his corpse along with her.
Salem found her in the fog, escorting her and Edgar out of the forest as quickly as possible. The ambulance was there, the episode ending with Cammie sitting in the hospital.
Edgar praised her for being brave then kissed her forehead in a brotherly manner to which she proceeded to cry softly into her hands while Edgar did his best to comfort her. "Oh Eddie... I did somethin I could never forgive myself for..." She wept softly while he tried to tell her otherwise but she stopped him and whispered. "I murdered him... and the worst part is? Id do it again an I know it." the episode ended with Edgar staring at the weeping woman in his arms until it blacked out to the end card.
There was no end music, just a silent image saying "The End" beside Cammie in a hospital gown, looking distraught.
Now you would think the story ends there but it doesnt. I wasnt afraid of the episode, I was curious. I tried to find a creator but none were listed whatsoever, nothing came up about this curious animation. I went the next morning to find that old lady's booth at the flea market and got the number of her son since she told me he would likely be able to answer my questions better than she could.
When I called him, he was understandably confused until I introduced myself and told him what I had called about. "Cammie... Candy..." He had responded to my querie with a question to himself before the memory hit.
"OH! You mean the cartoon? I loved it as a teen, Cammie was my favorite cartoon to watch. So you bought it from my grandmother?"
I spoke with him and learned the following. Cammie Candy was a cartoon from the thirties created by a couple of beginning cartoonists in their basement. Apparently they had wanted to take a more adult approach to cartooning but were told they could not air it. It became an underground thing that was passed around secretly and has continued being a secret to pay homage to her creator's and the legacy they left behind.
He told me other silly facts like how she was 20 and she was made of cotton candy ect ect... but then I told him about the episode I had watched which made him go silent. "You... You watched Secret Sweetheart? Did you watch it alone?" He sounded anxious, I replied yes and he breathed a sigh of relief before telling me. "Bury it somewhere in the forest, get rid of the damn thing. I don't know what the creators did to that fucking thing but whatever it was, It made my friend lose his shit. He had attacked some guys who had been pissing him off at a bar and he was arrested. I dont know what will happen to you but please, get rid of it. I'm so sorry... I should have thrown it out, I completely forgot about the damn thing... that was the last episode in the series..."
I thought he was batshit crazy for a bit before realising he probably was just trying to wrap his head around his friend's outburst. It happens to the best of us, so I cut him off during his little rant about how upset he was that he hadn't destroyed it himself and then I thanked him for his time before hanging up.
I looked over the disc then stored it away, going to bed for the night. I had enough craziness for one night after all. I had slept through most of the night when I heard a noise in my livingroom. I grabbed a bat and proceeded down the steps, calling out that I was armed and whoever had broken in better leave.
I spotted the intruder holding a knife and stealing some family heirlooms. My parents were no longer with us and my brother was in the hospital so seeing him holding all I had left of them just set something off inside me.
I glared at him and demaded he return what he stole or there would be trouble. He laughed it off, asking me what I'd do with a bat when he had a knife.
If the night couldn't get worse, he took a picture of my family then threw it to the ground. I knew he wanted a fight, he wanted to blow off steam and I was his punchingbag he wanted to blow it off on. I wasn't having it so I looked him dead in the eyes and slammed my bat into his hand as hard as I could. The moment he dropped the knife, I felt myself lunge forward.
I blacked out the moment I felt air but when I came too, I was caked with something dark and sticky while everything smelled like copper. I hurriedly turned on the lights to see the man I had torn the throat out of then immediately panicked.
I took a quick shower, packed my shit then left. I know it's only a matter of time before they find me so I beg of you, if you find this and if that CD goes back on the market, don't watch it. Bury it, hide it I don't care.
Something is wrong with it, I know I'd do it again if I could... I'd kill that man again and that show had something to do with this malicious, vengeful rage I'm now feeling coarsing through my veins.
I just know that somehow, some way it made me do what I did and that alone is more terrifying than what I watched on that screen that night. I have become more terrifying than what I had been so eager to witness just hours before... My mother always said that cartoons made you cruel... made you violent...
In a way, she was right.

I’ve always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
As a kid, I often had at least one broken bone, along with several scrapes and bruises in various parts of my body. All from climbing trees I wasn’t supposed to or jumping off our porch steps thinking that if I believed it hard enough, I’d be able to fly. Those were some of my tamer shenanigans. The older I got, the riskier the things I tried, only getting braver with age.
My mom, the poor woman, grew gray hairs early on in her life most likely because of me. No matter how much she tried, she could never really keep up. She still loved me though, always patching me up and kissing my forehead when I came home with a tear stained face and blood trickling from a scraped up knee.
As a teenager, I attempted half-heartedly to do more of the activities she persuaded me to engage in, like girl’s soccer or even gymnastics. To my dismay, they all lacked that element of danger that I craved. That thing that would activate my fight or flight instincts and get my blood pumping.
But I tried, I really did, if anything for my mother’s sake. She only got more worried about my wellbeing as she noticed my increasing carelessness. It was selfish, yes, but at the time I didn’t care. Isn’t that what being a teenager is all about?
Just when I was about to consider succumbing to normalcy, I discovered urbexing. Urbex is short for “urban exploration”, which is basically breaking into abandoned places. Yes, I know it’s illegal, but it’s pretty harmless compared to other things I used to called hobbies. Now that I think about it, most of them could have been illegal too, so I’m not going to talk about them in case there’s any cops or something reading this.
It all started with that old house at the end of my best friend Lacey’s street, one that had been abandoned for a couple generations, becoming the subject of urban legends and Halloween dares.
The dilapitaded sctructure was pretty much a skeleton of wood at that point, choked with long, crawling vines. The windows and the front door were boarded up, but I wasn’t sure if it was to keep people out… or something in. The grass was way overgrown, so we had to swat our way through like jungle explorers, strangely drawn to the mystery surrounding the house. Some said it was haunted by a restless soul with unfinished business. Others said it was left behind and never lived in again due to a body being found in the basement. Maybe the two stories were correlated, but I wasn’t really sure what to believe, so I preferred to find out myself.
We had found an access point on the side of the house, a window that had already been smashed in. It led to the basement, which made us hesitate a moment. If the stories were true, then we’d be crawling right into the resting place of… someone.
“What if there is a ghost?” Lacey asked, chewing on her thumbnail anxiously. She was almost as adventurous as me, but still had some limits pretty well set, paranormal included. “Or worse, what if there’s more than one? There had to be other stupid kids before us, going where they shouldn’t.”
“Then we absolutely can’t miss out on that,” I said, trying to be persuasive, nudging her arm with my elbow. “It’d make a hell of a good story.”
After another moment of hesitation, she nodded with a sigh of resignation. I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t happy about it, but I said nothing more so she wouldn’t change her mind. I knew she was only doing this for me and while I was incredibly thankful, I also felt a little guilty. I climbed in first, helping her down as she followed. She was tense, but I took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
The basement was actually pretty disappointing. It was like a lair for spiders, with cobwebs everywhere, a thick layer of dust and plenty of holes in the walls for them to hide in. But there was no body, not even the old stench of a rotting corpse or anything. While Lacey visibly relaxed, I could tell she was kind of dissapointed as well.
The atmosphere did feel heavier here though, with an unnatural chill that seeped into my bones. I tried to ignore it as we pressed on. We marched up the rickety wooden stairs and we both had to throw ourselves against the basement door in order to open it. My shoulder hurt afterwards, but I barely felt it as we walked into the kitchen, our footsteps too loud in the overbearing silence of the lonesome house.
Not much had been left behind, only some scarce furniture and imprints on the wall where pictures had been hung. Some of the furniture had been covered with white sheets, which prompted me to jokingly tell Lacey those were the ghosts we were looking for.
That house had only left us with a hunger for more, so we looked for more abandoned sites. Soon, more of our friends joined Lacey and I. There was nothing better for teenagers to do in our small town, so any entertainment was always welcome.
We went to the old canning factory on the outkirst of town, the rusted train tracks, a mall two towns over that shut down in the 90’s, and many other places. It wasn’t really surprising that there were so many abandoned places, as business wasn’t exactly booming around these parts. It made me feel a little sad for them, but then again we wouldn’t be exploring them if they were still operating.
Unfortunately, like a shiny new toy given to a child, we started to lose interest with time. Eventually, it went back to just me and Lacey going to these places. Then life got in the way. Being seniors in highschool, we were too focused on our future and the preparation for it. SAT prep, college and scholarship applications, worrying about what you actually wanted to do with your life – All the horribly insipid things that came with being an “adult”.
The summer after graduation, when I was preparing to go away for college and was saying goodbye to life as I knew it, my interest in urbexing came back. Most of my friends were away vacationing somewhere overseas or were working part time jobs, so there wasn’t much for me to do. I was stuck inside for the most part, trying to find ways to keep myself entertained, endlessly day dreaming about swimming in a lake or going dirt biking with my friends.
Then one day, while I was dicking around online looking for part time jobs, I found myself searching for places to explore. Most on the list I had already been to, so I expanded my search radius, going on different forums. I could already drive, so I figured there’d be no harm in traveling somewhere if it wasn’t too far.
That’s when I found Summerville, an old amusement park that had been shut down in the early 2000’s. It didn’t really say why, but I didn’t think it was due to bad business. It was said to be only two states away, on the outskirts of a bigger town than mine, which was also much closer to a metropolitan city. Surely, they couldn’t have done too badly.
There weren’t many images of Summerville, but from what I could see, it wasn’t a massive park. Big enough to be locally known, but small enough to stay off most maps. One of the images I saw was of the entrance, where a large sign with a cartoon faced Sun welcomed visitors. I saw some murals that depicted vintage cartoon versions of forest animals, all covered in graffiti. There were some close ups of rollecrcoasters, empty food courts, the ferris wheel and the outside of some boat ride. It was the latter that caught my attention, wild images of what might be on the inside running through my mind.
I had watched videos of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, back when it was a dream of mine to go to the “happiest place on earth”. Of course, my family couldn’t afford it, so I had to settle with local fairs and YouTube videos. The animatronics on the ride had definitely creeped me out a little, along with the idea of being in a dark, cavernous space. I thought of their rubbery, vaguely human faces and wondered if I’d find something similar in Summerville’s boat ride. I hadn’t been able to see its name, as it was all covered in even more graffiti.
It was that exact train of thought that made me start spontaneously planning my trip up there. It was too tempting to pass, and driving up to it would be like my summer vacation. I thought back to that first house at the end of Lacey’s street, the one that started all of this. I figured amusement parks, just like houses, had a lot of stories to tell. How could a place that once witnessed so many things - joy and heartbreak and all things real - just be forgotten, left to rot as nature begins to reclaim the land?
More importantly, why?
I forwarded all my findings to Lacey, my excitement only growing as I sold her the idea of travelling up there further over the phone. This time, she was even more hesitant, but after I threatened with going by myself, she agreed. She knew I wasn’t lying, and at the time I tried not to think about how shitty that was of me.
“One day, you’re gonna get us haunted or something, Josie…” she said over the phone, with that same tone of resignation that I had come to know so well. “Maybe some places are meant to just left alone.”
“As long as you’re with me, nothing’s gonna happen.” I promised, intending to always keep it. It was the least I could do for her in return.
That same weekend, Lacey’s parents would be away visitng family, and I told mine that I’d be spending that time at her house. We hit the road early on Friday, with only a vague sense of where we were heading and enough determination from my part to keep us going. When we finally arrived at the town that neighbored Summerville, we had to ask locals about the place and where to find it. Most weren’t sure what we were talking about, while others were more preoccupied by the fact that we were two teenagers travelling alone.
Looking back, I can’t believe I was ever that intrepid. Stupid is a better word, but I like to cut my teenage self some slack. I was clever in some ways, believe it or not, and that ended up saving our asses.
It wasn’t until an older man at a diner overheard us talking about Summerville that we got directions and a map with scribbles on it. The man said he remembered going there as a kid, how it got it’s name by the fact that it was only open during the summers.
“It had a short run,” he said, nostalgia in his voice. “But the days that it was functioning, it was like a safe haven for the kids in this town, myself included.”
When asked if he knew why it closed, he just shrugged. “I don’t know, really. There were some rumors that their structures were poorly built, so they didn’t pass safety inspections. I don’t ever recall there being a problem though, except…” he tilted his head to one side as he thought. “The last couple times I went, the boat ride, I believe it was called ‘The Charmed River’, was out of service. It wasn’t my favorite, but I remember it being quite interesting.”
That night, we slept in Lacey’s car and drove out to find Summerville as soon as morning rose. We had driven on the highway for an hour when I finally say the crest of a rollecoaster’s tracks. My heart pounded with excitement and anticipation, while at the same time I almost couldn’t believe we had actually found it. We pulled off the next exit, other structures of the park coming into view. The ferris wheel was even larger in person, but it seemed to be in terrible shape, slowly being eaten away by rust. The few rollercoasters I saw didn’t seem to be doing any better, with a couple stray carts lost on the tracks.
Lacey hadn’t even finished parking before I dashed out of the car, bouncing in place with impatience. She caught up to me quickly, after making sure her car was safe, and I smiled sheepishly at her scowl. Her annoyance didn’t last long, as she was equally surprised that we had managed to pull off my foolish plans. Still, I could sense she was scared, so I gave her hand a squeeze.
We jumped over the turnstiles, the cartoonish Sun at the entrance watching us with dead, empty eyes. It didn’t seem inviting at all, and I wondered how other people hadn’t been creeped out by it. The faces of the other cartoon animals on the murals watched us as well, like we were part of a spectacle. There was something about it that made me feel strange, the hair on the nape of my neck standing on edge. It was exhilarating all the same.
The park was blanketed by an eerie silence, broken only by the groan of a settling structure or the faint breeze. As I had seen online, most things were covered in layers of graffiti. The food court stands near the main entrance had been mostly gutted, left with only a few appliances and debris. The outdoor tables were covered in grime and dust. Lacey was busy taking pictures of all our findings, not straying too far from me.
We walked around for some time, finding a board that had an old map of the park with a red dot indicating where we were. We weren’t far from The Charmed River, so I made the executive decision that we’d be going there next. I could feel that it’s where we would find real treasure. The bathrooms and the other rides could wait. I dragged Lacey towards it, where we found the ‘Out of Service’ sign the man had told us about. We climbed over the chain that would normally cut access to regular park visitors, walking up to the double doors where we were greated by a heavy duty chain that kept them shut.
Luckily, I had taken my father’s bolt cutters for this exact reason. Obviously, it wasn’t the first place we had broken into, and it certainly wasn’t the first place with chains. Lacey cringed with each loud snap of metal and when the chains dropped, it was much easier busting the door open. Before I could even take a step into the main corridor leading inside, Lacey grabbed me by the arm.
“Are you… sure about this one?” She said, swallowing hard. “I could feel something waft out as soon as you opened the doors. Some weird energy, it gives me the heebie jeebies.”
To be quite fair, I had felt it too, but there was already a strange energy surrounding the entire park. It felt like that moment when you were holding your breath in anticipation for something. Unfortunately for her, it was that same thing I always craved, and right now I was intoxicated with it.
“It’s gonna be okay, just get your flashlight and stay close to me. Remember what I told you.” I said, trying to be reassuring but sure that my eyes were a little crazed. She frowned, but followed me, not wanting to be alone.
We clicked our flashlights on and made our way in, weaving through the railings that had once separated sections of the waiting line. It was definitely colder in there, a humid kind of cold that one would find only in cavernous places. Goosebumps appeared on my skin as I suppressed a shiver. In the distance, I could faintly hear the echo of dripping water.
On the fake rock walls, there were several posters depicting and giving brief information about different kinds of river fish. I read about Walleyes, Carps and Trouts before one of the posters stopped me in my tracks. This one was about Barracudas.
“What the hell?” I uttered under my breath, “Barracudas aren’t even river fish.”
Beside me, Lacey lifted one shoulder, examining the poster as well. “Maybe they wanted to add some spice? Some element of danger?”
I huffed out a laugh. “I’m sure there’s better predatory fish for that, but what do I know?”
We reached the beginning of the ride, where there were some abandoned canoe shaped carts sitting on the tracks, big enough for three people. The water was dark and still, so I knew those wouldn’t be moving without some electricity or at least a strong current. “We have to find the control room.” I said and at that exact moment spotted the outline of a door on the wall. Luck was on our side today.
It wasn’t locked, but it was definitely stuck, so Lacey and I had to put our shoulders to use once more. Once we were able to open it, a cloud of dust shot up as the door burst inwards. The control room was small, with some old control panels and a couple monitors mounted on the wall. Cobweb’s clung to most surfaces, but I wasn’t afraid of the spider’s inhabiting them as I approached the control pannels, eyeing all the buttons and switches with childlike curiosity. An asinine part of my brain made me start pressing buttons randomly, flipping switches back and forth, as well as making up my own patterns of pressing-and-flipping. Lacey just shot me weird looks as she took pictures of everything.
Nothing seemed to happen and while I was not surprised, I was definitely kind of disappointed. Lacey must have sensed this, as she stopped taking pictures and said. “Let’s go back to the actual ride, maybe we can sneak a peek at one of their animatronics or something.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice.
Surprisingly, by the time we came back out, I could hear the soft gurgle of water and noticed that it now seemed to be flowing under the canoe. I hadn’t heard anything change, but more than that it was almost impossible to believe that anything was still working here. I glanced back at Lacey, my eyes wide as saucers in wonder. Now, I had to go on it.
Lacey, whether it was intentional or not, took a step back. “Um, didn’t it say it was out of order? Where does it even lead?”
I shrugged, “I mean, the ride? I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
She sighed but shook her head with determination, finally putting her foot down. “No, I won’t go on it, I’ll wait for you here at the control room.” She said. “You have to stop this area again to get off the ride anyway, right?”
For the first time, I didn’t beg her to come with me. I knew that I had been pushing my luck for a while now and that it was starting to wear thin. I almost offered to stay with her and get the hell out of there, but something was insistently tugging me towards the ride and it’s secrets. I wasn’t even sure if it’d really work, but it’d be dumb not to try after we came all the way out here.
With only the company of my flashlight and my phone, I sat on the canoe waiting for Lacey to try and find the button that would start my journey. Suddenly, there was a loud click coming from underneath me and next thing I knew, I was moving forward. I let out a nervous chuckle and took a deep breath as I waved goodbye at my best friend.
The ride started normal enough, but my skin still pricked as I was lost in the cavernous darkness, with only my flashlight piercing through it. It smelled like mildew and something old I couldn’t quite place. I was expecting to see some worn down animatronics, treated unkindly by time, but there weren’t any. All the spots where they would normally be were empty, with only a silhouette of grime on the wall where they should have been. This struck me as a little odd, but then I figured there was no reason to leave them out if the park was shutting down.
Still, the ambience was very resemblant of Disney’s Splash Mountain, with sprouting fake plants and flowers in various natural stages. Difference was, there were no high plunges or any outdoor areas, at least none that I could see. After that short entry tunnel, the canoe floated out into a significantly larger area. There were some more empty stands, except for one, where there was an animatronic of a faceless bear wearing a fishing vest and holding a fighing rod. Well, it wasn’t completely faceless – its endoskeleton and bulging eyes were there, trained forward, looking into infinity.
There were also three smaller animatronics of fish, stuck in a permanent arch above the water as if they had jumped into the air but never came back down. Their eyes were wide, almost as if panicked. I took a couple pictures of everything with my own phone, feeling both a sense of wonder and dread at the same time.
On the other side of the cave, there were two large windows which seemingly let you see into another water tank adjacent to the ride. There was plenty of algae, the water tinted a murky green. At the bottom, there seemed to be pieces of another animatronic that had been seemingly ripped apart. There were also some tubes and cables which were seemingly once attached to something. Maybe another animatronic.
Suddenly, I could hear bubbling nearby and I whipped my body towards the sudden noise. I hadn’t notice how quiet it really was until that small sound broke through. There, near the tunnel ahead of me that led into the next room, something had surfaced. It was something round, not fully out of the water, covered in what I thought was algae. Or maybe not algae, but long strands of dark hair. It was… a head, a small one at that. A child’s head? But how could it be?
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the canoe stopped. I leaned forward as I pointed my flashlight directly at whatever was in front of me, sure my mind was playing tricks on me. It had sickening green skin, which seemed to be sagging right off, like it was a rotten, waterlogged mask. Underneath the curtain of hair, sunken yellow eyes peered up at me, which crinkled at the outer corners, an indication that it was smiling at me.
Suddenly, I could hear the faint echoes of laughter, bouncing off the walls and coming at me from every direction. It was high pitched, which made me think it definitely could be a child, or at least their ghost. At my side, where the adjacent tank was, I swore I could see a large shadow dart past. By the time I directed my flashlight at it, it was long gone.
The atmosphere thickened, the temperature dropping further. The laughter ceased and there was one tense moment of silence before something suddenly crashed against the canoe, throwing it off the tracks and plunging me into the dark waters. The shock made me breathe in, accidentaly swallowing a large mouthful of the vile, murky water. I tried to set my feet on the floor, but it was surprisingly deep, so I ended up just kicking instead.
Momentarily, the flashlight slipped from my grasp, so I swam towards it frantically and grabbed it before making my back up to the surface. I could feel something else in the water with me, moving in slow circles around me, as if assessing me. As soon as I broke the surface, I violently coughed, looking at my surroundings with new eyes. Sheer terror suddenly gripped me in it’s cold, unforgiving grasp as I hyperventilaed. It was like nothing the undercurrent of fear that I had once felt at the prospect of a ghost, which was almost pleasurable in a sense. Thrill heightened everything, but this was like overdose and for the first time, I considered I might die.
Something swam by my legs, stirring up the water. I didn’t even want to see what it was, furiously swimming towards the stand where the fishing bear was. I grabbed onto it’s leg, the water making it slippery, and started hoisting myself up as the thing lurking under the water gripped my leg and pulled. I could feel sharp teeth pierce my flesh, which made me scream at the top of my lungs, even if the adrenaline didn’t let me feel the pain of the bite yet. These teeth were large, impossible to have fit in that small head I had seen. It had to be something else hunting me now.
With my free leg, I kicked back at it as hard as I could, hearing a metallic clang resonate loudly through the cave. The thing let me go and I quickly pulled myself up, sprawling onto that small piece of solid ground. Immediately, I vomited a spray of water, heaving painfully when nothing else came out. It mixed with the blood coming out of the wound on my leg. Coughing, I pointed the flashlight all around me, thanful that I had gotten a waterproof one.
In the water, I could see the creature’s back cresting over the water, chunks of it’s rubbery suit missing, exposing a metallic endoskeleton that looked like a spine and ribs. At first glance, I thought the spots on its sickening grey skin were caused by water rot or black mold, but then I saw its tail flick up before disappearing back into the water.
I wedged myself between the bear and the back wall, trying to calm down enough to try and come up with an escape plan. I looked down and assessed the damage on my leg, when I could suddenly hear a yell coming from down the tunnel. It was Lacey’s voice, and I recognized the syllables of my name.
“Don’t come down here!” I yelled back as loud as I could, hoping she understood me. I had promised nothing would happen to her and I intended to keep that promise, no matter what. I would have to figure this out on my own or, God forbid, die trying.
Everything was still around me, not even the water moving, but I knew that the monster was still lurking under the water. How could an old animatronic just… do that? There was no way that this old park could have such advanced technology, especially not underwater. I don’t think even Disney had something like this.
After a couple more moments of nothing, an idea popped into my head. Obviously, being a robot, it couldn’t scent my blood, but maybe it was drawn by something else, like movement. After all, it had striked after the canoe had floated into the room.
Carefully, I removed one of my shoes and threw it as far as I could. It fell with a loud splash, creating ripples in the otherwise still water. Not even a moment later, the water shifted again and suddenly, the monster surfaced, swallowing my shoe in one mouthful. Its metallic jaws clanges loudly, the sound resonating around me.
It looked exactly like a real barracuda, except for the fact that it was arond three times bigger. One of its eyes was missing, only a dark, empty crater left. Though it was impossile, I could feel its predatory gaze locked on me. I had a feeling it liked playing these games before finally claiming its prize. I also did not fail to notice the extra row of teeth a little further back in it’s elongated maw, which had luckily not reached my leg. Shit, shit, shit.
All my mother’s warnings suddenly came rushing back to me, along with what Lacey had said when I proposed the idea of coming here. Maybe some places are meant to just left alone. Why didn’t I just fucking listen?
With a whimper, I shifted uncomfortably, trying to press myself further against the wall. At the movement, the bear tilted forward slightly with a groan. I looked down at it and was suddenly presented with an opportunity to escape. Still, I knew that I had only one chance and that the window of opportunity was a narrow one.
Shifting again to press my feet against it, I pushed as hard as I could, screaming through gritted teeth from both the exertion and the slight pain I began to feel shooting up my leg. More blood poured out of my wound and I suddenly felt a little dizzy. It was now or never. With one last hard shove, the bear fell into the water and I knew I only had seconds before the animatronic barracuda swam towards the sudden movement.
I shoved it back in the direction of the next tunnel with all my might and carefully slipped into the water as well, swimming in the other direction. I blocked out all thoughts from my head, focusing instead on just moving. Swimming with an injured leg and holding a flashback was almost impossible, but my panic induced instincts were the only thing that made me persevere, kicking as hard and fast as I could.
There was a big splash behind me, followed by metalic scraping and grinding. I prayed to whatever God was up there that I would survive this, vowing to never chase thrills in places I didn’t belong in ever again. I would be a better daughter and stop stressing my mother out. I would stop forcing Lacey to do things she didn’t like. I would grow the fuck up.
My breaths came out in short pants and my legs burned, but I pressed on. Behind me, the scraping ceased, followed by another echo of a tinny laugh. I was about to reach another small stand when curiosity got the best of me. I needed to know how much of a head start I had at this point. I twisted my upper body to see if the animatronic was right behind me, wildly pointing the flashlight around.
There, in the cavern behind me, I could see at least a dozen more bobbing heads, some bigger and others as small as the first one I’d seen. Many more pairs of glowing yellow eyes, bright as fireflies on a moonless night, watched me struggle. I could feel icy hot hatred suddenly flood through me, with a sort of deeply rooted wrath I had never experenced before, but it wasn’t my own.
Not far from me, the water rippled, signaling movement. Quickly, I hoisted myself up onto the stand, gripping the fake flowers and accidentaly ripping some off. I didn’t care to ruin anything – everything had already lost it’s charm a while ago. At least I was in the first passageway now, much closer to the starting point. Not far from me, I could see Lacey’s flashlight reflecting on the water.
“Josie!” She yelled, panic laced in her voice. “Josie, what’s going on!?”
Instead of answering, I waited for a moment for the water to still, and then another moment just in case. Then, I quickly removed my other shoe and threw it behind me. I slipped into the water once more, swimming as fast as I could towards Lacey’s light, my only beacon of hope. This was a much longer path for me to swim without the safety of another piece of land, so I knew I had less time and even less of a chance. I pushed myself as hard as I could, feeling a slight graze against my unscathed leg and almost shitting myself.
When I was close enough, I screamed “Help me out!” and Lacey did not hesitate one moment before reaching down and pulling at my arms. Next thing I knew, I sprawled out on the dusty concrete floor, scrambling further away from the edge. This time, the animatronic did not show itself, but bubbles floated to the surface for a moment before the water stilled completely. Relief flooded throughout my body in a violent shiver and I burst out sobbing. I was safe. I was in one piece. I couldn’t believe it.
Lacey asked me time and time again what I had seen, but I could not utter any coherent words other than “I’m sorry”, which I repeated like a broken record. She helped me out of there and all the way back to the car, the sun already beginning to set in the horizon. Had we really been here for that long?
As the adrenaline and shock wore off further, pain shot up my leg like licking flames. The rush to the hospital was a blur as I swam in and out of consciousness, my brain overwhelmed from everything that had happened. Images of the bobbing heads and the steel maw of the beastly barracuda circulated through my mind, still chasing me even in my nightmares.
When I was stable and fully awake, the doctors told me they were glad to have tended to my leg before an infection could set in. They were curious about what had happened to it and had tried to ask Lacey, but she had said nothing, waiting for me to wake up. I clammed up at first too, fearing the consequences that I’d face for the first time. We were assured by the medical staff that they wouldn’t contact the police, that we were safe with them.
Giving in, I stayed as close to the truth as I could, omitting some pretty big details of what happened in The Charmed River. The last thing I needed was to be interned for sounding insane. They wouldn’t believe me and frankly, I wouldn’t blame them. I couldn’t really understand it myself. Lacey just nodded along to my story but didn’t really say anything, probably just as in shock as I was.
Our parents had been called, and as we waited for them to arrive, one of the doctors lingered in the room, looking like he had been dying to tell us something. He waited untill most of the staff was gone before crouching next to the bed so he was close to us.
He leaned in close, lowering his voice, his breath smelling of coffee and nicotine. “I know that your wounds are not from getting stuck in a chainlink fence. The pattern doesn’t match, and the other doctors might be ready to write it off, but I think I know what really happened.”
This doctor, an older gentleman who’s name I can’t disclose, told us what really brought down Summerville. A couple years after the park had opened, a boy was said to have drowned in The Charmed River. No one knew any more details than that, but assumed he had just fallen off the canoe and got stuck or something. The park owners, afraid for the park’s reputation and the possibility of its shutdown, covered this up extensively and shut down the boat ride.
Problem is, this kept happening. Kids were disappearing in the park, there one moment and gone the next. Parents were going to the police and too many cases piled up for them to just continue to ignore it. Some time into the investigation, an employee of the park once went into The Charmed River for reasons unknown and found some pretty incriminating – not to mention horrifying – evidence. They were rattled so deeply that they could not keep it a secret, and that was Summerville’s ruin.
Luckily, the deaths seemed to have stopped after the park had closed. No one before us had ventured into The Charmed River, likely because they had heard the stories, or maybe because they could just feel the evil in that place. It had been waiting, and we had walked right into it.
After returning home, I lost my appetite for adventure. I just couldn’t find the appeal anymore, especially not after waking up from nightmares most nights. I stayed away from most bodies of water, even as small as swimming pools. Hell, I couldn’t even watch those Disney ride videos without a primal reaction anymore.
I knew that my mother was happy that I was alive and was now taking my safety seriously, but I could tell she was worried about my new, withdrawn self. Still, better like this than how I was before, right?
That last summer at home I was grounded, spending most of my time indoors. I found a part time job at the library, the only place quiet and safe enough in my mind. Once, I could have dreaded being in there, but now found a new safe haven. After that my parents sent me away to college and I finally started growing into a fine adult. Or so I like to think. What other choice did I have?
I did not speak about what happened to anyone else and I kept my newly made promises. Lacey and I stayed friends, thankfully, but I think a big part of it is due to our shared experince. We still talk often, but since we’re in separate states, the friendship is not the same as it was back in highschool.
I can’t help but wonder, though, each time I trace the raised pink skin of the scar on my leg: was that animatronic’s sentience the vengeful will of the boy? Or was there already something predating his drowning?
Something truly evil had been in that place, something that felt old, and truly unexplainable. I know it’s still there, in the park that despite the protests of many people, is still standing. We never spoke to the cops, and we sure as hell didn’t tell our parents the real reason behind our roadtrip. We just wanted to leave Summerville behind, burying our memories of it deep into our subconscious.
Sometimes it feels like it’s calling me back, not yet done with me, but it’s a call I have learned to ignore. Other times, when I’m just on the verge of sleep, I think I see those glowing yellow eyes peering in through my window. What haunts me the most, though, is the fact that we reopened those doors, and now anyone else who is curious enough to go out there might encounter what I did.
But they might not be so lucky.

I was shopping at a flea market, looking for some old cartoons when I came across a particular seller with a lovely selection. I am a big fan of Popeye The Sailorman, Betty Boop cartoons and the occasional Disney short from the 1920's to 30's.
She had many of these as well as some things I had never even heard of. She was an elderly woman, wild hair but a kind face. She smelled strongly of perfume and the typical old people smell, you know the one.
I made small talk with her, her scratchy but gentle voice kept my attention. I asked her about the discs and VHS tapes. She gave sometimes useful and sometimes not so useful answers.
There was this one CD that had the words "Cammie Candy. Secret Sweetheart" written in red marker. I was curious so I asked the old woman what it was to which she explained that her son had gotten that from a friend of his but now he had moved out and had said she could sell his old cartoons.
I made small talk, bought my things then took them home with me.
I spent that same night enjoying my spoils when that CD came to mind again. I had my snacks in place and heated blanket on high considering it was cold that night.
I checked over the CD. The disc was a little scratched but nothing too bad so I cleaned it up then popped it in the DVD player.
I sat on my couch, pressing play while I swaddled myself in my blanket.
The episode played a cutesy, upbeat song. It seemed old, definitely a 30's cartoon judging by the sound quality and lack of color. Then she popped on screen. Cammie Candy was sitting cutely by the title card of the Episode. She was adorable, blowing a kiss our way and giving a little wave.
The episode started with her getting dressed, I had not expected to see such pinup-like shots of her I recalled Betty Boop cartoons doing a similar thing though not being so bold.
She was singing a little song about how love was in the air and she hoped to find a boyfriend soon since it was nearing Valentines Day. She had gotten dressed when she heard a knock at the door. The animation was very good as she hurried along to meet whomever was knocking on her door.
She opens the door, whoever is at her residence has been obstructed though their hand comes into the frame and offers her a letter as well as a rose.
She cheerfully accepts them both, giving whoever came to the door a tip then closing it as the hand retreated along with the closing door.
She sat down in her plush chair to read out a love letter written by a secret admirer, jumping for joy as she sang a short reprise about having found a boyfriend before realising she didnt actually know who it was.
I missed a bit when I got a text from someone but didnt go back considering it was an unimportant scene of her dolling up then rushing out the door after doing some chores that had your typical living furniture jokes expected of a rubber hose style cartoon
Cammie held her rose, sniffing it as couples and men passed by, fawning over her as she pondered who it could be.
She started stopping single men to ask if it was them who sent her the rose but they either apologized and denied it or took it as an opportunity to flirt with her which earned them a stern talking to or a smack. I took this chance to take a picture of her. There she is!
We soon cut to later that night when she is talking with a male friend of her's inside her little house. He appeared to be a man with some kind of cake for a head. Apparently his name was Edgar. He just comforted her, smiling in a calming way as she tearfully spoke about how she couldn't find the man who sent her the rose.
He suggested some people but she shook her head, telling him about how they confirmed that they did not send the rose.
He thought for a bit more before a worried look came upon his face, he bit his lip as he nervously looked at the rose. Cammie seemed confused at his expression then asked. "What's with the face?" He rubs the back of his neck before saying "There is... one person you havent asked..." He trailed off as she leans forward.
"Who is it? Who is it?" She asks in an excitable manner. Her excitement is soon dulled when her friend says the name he is thinking of. "Salem Crowcircle." He whispered to which he earned a light flick to the nose (it appeared to be a strawberry nose). "Don't joke like that! You'll make me faint!"
He chuckled but kept frowning while saying. "I'm not joking though. He's the only one we havent seen yet." And so they decided to go see him along with another friend of their's named Silas.
Cammie, Edgar and Silas proceeded down a spooky forest. I had sat up, shoveling some popcorn into my mouth as I watched in suspense. Cammie was the main focus, losing her friends in the thick fog that seemed to be prevelant in the creepy forest.
Silas dicked around and made rude, crude jokes to his friends. He teased and pissed them off but they seemed to love him regardless.
She bumped into someone, apologizing before looking up then yelping when she saw their face.
We got a look as well and it appeared we had found Salem. He had a french plague doctor's mask on of which he removed to reveal a rather disheveled looking man with a crystal ball for a head.
It was cracked, scratched and broken. He was cloaked in black and towered over Cammie though Cammie already appeared to be a smaller character so compared to her? He almost looked monstorous.
"What are you doing here?" Salem spoke gently but his voice was deep, it startled me a little sheerly from the unexpected tone.
Cammie stammered on about how she was wondering if he had sent her the rose and letter.
He politely asked for the rose then proceeded to inspect it while he delicately rolled it between his claws, placing it back into her hands in a gentlemanly and tender manner.
He knelt to her level, shaking his head before stating. "You have caught the eyes of someone who is not of this world. It appears a dangerous creature has been charmed by you Miss. Candy... I advise you leave this forest before you are harmed. This is no place for a sugary woman to be wandering about with some equally sweet friends... You are all bound to be harmed in some way..."
Cammie looked startled as she stared into Salem's tired eyes. They were glazed, suggesting that he was hard of seeing. A sound offscreen caught all of our attention. He put the mask back on, looking behind him then stood up.
"Who goes there?" Salem called out into the darkness to find Edgar hurrying over to them with something on him. I heard heavy weeping from him, whoever was voice acting for him had done an excellent job in making him sound as if he had seen something beyond horrific.
I believed at the time that this was some kind of Halloween episode... I still have my theories.
Cammie cried out, running to Edgar then panicked when she saw him soaked in something dark. She turned to Salem who was walking towards them, Cammie screamed that Edgar... Was covered in blood.
Edgar was sobbing profusely, shaking. The events were loud enough that I turned my volume down to avoid neighbors believing someone was getting murdered in my home.
Salem led them out of the forest then returned to it to presumably go find Silas. Cammie wept profusely as Edgar told her about how he had been searching for Silas when he slipped and fell in blood. He had tried following the trail but it had led to a dead end.
I was now very interested, this wasn't your typical 30's cartoon. This was very adult and very dark and I was starting to enjoy it. I didn't think much of it as I had seen old adult cartoons and assumed this was of the same breed of shows from that era.
Cammie had left Edgar to go find Silas, I had not been fond of Silas as he had been a dick in all of the three minutes we got to know him so I was hoping they wouldn't find him.
Cammie ended up going into a cave. Upon reaching the end, she pulled out some matches and attempted to light them.
She soon succeeded only to end up screaming and crying as she saw Silas's vicera crudely strewn out before her in the shape of a heart.
I stared in awe, someone had expertly shaded and drawn his organs and body parts in great detail. I have seen a great deal of adult swim and your typical "edgy" horror videos but I had never seen something like this from this era.
She choked and sobbed as she stared in horror.
She started to realise pieces were missing then opted to find them so he could have a proper burial.
"He always wanted an open casket funeral." She choked through her tears as she searched the cave then came to find his organs were all in some sort of "romantic" art aimed towards her.
I felt something in my stomach twist, not sickness but like my insides were burning up.
She viewed in horror as she passed his heart nailed to a wall with the words "My heart bleeds for you." Carved below it.
She collected it then proceeded on to see his eyes hanging on the wall with the words "You're the only one I see." Carved around them. She collected those then hurried along.
She reached his appendix of which made her look angry as she read. "They are useless and easily removable." She fumed tearfully as she finally got to the brain. "You are forever, brilliant, unique."
She was backing away when she bumped into someone once again. "Salem?" She whimpered, she looked up and came face to face with the decaying face of a nameless character. He appeared to be some kind of skeletal horned animal but I wasnt sure what as his horns appeared splintered and broken.
She screamed but her scream was muffled by a hand, the creature explained how he had done this for her. "You are everything I have ever wanted, beautiful... obedient... I desire you so strongly..." He sounded desperate as this nameless creature nuzzled her cheek in a possessive manner. "Be mine Camella Candy and I will allow your friend to live... Deny me and he will die." He said as he tugged her fluffy hair as if he was threatening to rip it out.
I started noticing Cammie's expression go from upset to a slow... boiling... rage. I felt similarly though I didn't know why. Feeling my hands angrily grip the cushion of my chair through clenched teeth.
I felt myself jump as Cammie whipped around then bit down on his hand. It came out of nowhere as the creature released her, screaming in agony. The screen proceeded to do a close up of her face. God those eyes
I stared in awe, looking at the realism in Cammie's face as well as her animated breathing and spittle.
She then proceeded to lunge at him then bit his neck. She tore his throat wide open. I actually felt a little sick as she maliciously tore this man apart.
By the time it was over, she stood up and wiped her mouth, looking to the organs on the ground.
She collected her friend's pieces and left the cave, carrying his corpse along with her.
Salem found her in the fog, escorting her and Edgar out of the forest as quickly as possible. The ambulance was there, the episode ending with Cammie sitting in the hospital.
Edgar praised her for being brave then kissed her forehead in a brotherly manner to which she proceeded to cry softly into her hands while Edgar did his best to comfort her. "Oh Eddie... I did somethin I could never forgive myself for..." She wept softly while he tried to tell her otherwise but she stopped him and whispered. "I murdered him... and the worst part is? Id do it again an I know it." the episode ended with Edgar staring at the weeping woman in his arms until it blacked out to the end card.
There was no end music, just a silent image saying "The End" beside Cammie in a hospital gown, looking distraught.
Now you would think the story ends there but it doesnt. I wasnt afraid of the episode, I was curious. I tried to find a creator but none were listed whatsoever, nothing came up about this curious animation. I went the next morning to find that old lady's booth at the flea market and got the number of her son since she told me he would likely be able to answer my questions better than she could.
When I called him, he was understandably confused until I introduced myself and told him what I had called about. "Cammie... Candy..." He had responded to my querie with a question to himself before the memory hit.
"OH! You mean the cartoon? I loved it as a teen, Cammie was my favorite cartoon to watch. So you bought it from my grandmother?"
I spoke with him and learned the following. Cammie Candy was a cartoon from the thirties created by a couple of beginning cartoonists in their basement. Apparently they had wanted to take a more adult approach to cartooning but were told they could not air it. It became an underground thing that was passed around secretly and has continued being a secret to pay homage to her creator's and the legacy they left behind.
He told me other silly facts like how she was 20 and she was made of cotton candy ect ect... but then I told him about the episode I had watched which made him go silent. "You... You watched Secret Sweetheart? Did you watch it alone?" He sounded anxious, I replied yes and he breathed a sigh of relief before telling me. "Bury it somewhere in the forest, get rid of the damn thing. I don't know what the creators did to that fucking thing but whatever it was, It made my friend lose his shit. He had attacked some guys who had been pissing him off at a bar and he was arrested. I dont know what will happen to you but please, get rid of it. I'm so sorry... I should have thrown it out, I completely forgot about the damn thing... that was the last episode in the series..."
I thought he was batshit crazy for a bit before realising he probably was just trying to wrap his head around his friend's outburst. It happens to the best of us, so I cut him off during his little rant about how upset he was that he hadn't destroyed it himself and then I thanked him for his time before hanging up.
I looked over the disc then stored it away, going to bed for the night. I had enough craziness for one night after all. I had slept through most of the night when I heard a noise in my livingroom. I grabbed a bat and proceeded down the steps, calling out that I was armed and whoever had broken in better leave.
I spotted the intruder holding a knife and stealing some family heirlooms. My parents were no longer with us and my brother was in the hospital so seeing him holding all I had left of them just set something off inside me.
I glared at him and demaded he return what he stole or there would be trouble. He laughed it off, asking me what I'd do with a bat when he had a knife.
If the night couldn't get worse, he took a picture of my family then threw it to the ground. I knew he wanted a fight, he wanted to blow off steam and I was his punchingbag he wanted to blow it off on. I wasn't having it so I looked him dead in the eyes and slammed my bat into his hand as hard as I could. The moment he dropped the knife, I felt myself lunge forward.
I blacked out the moment I felt air but when I came too, I was caked with something dark and sticky while everything smelled like copper. I hurriedly turned on the lights to see the man I had torn the throat out of then immediately panicked.
I took a quick shower, packed my shit then left. I know it's only a matter of time before they find me so I beg of you, if you find this and if that CD goes back on the market, don't watch it. Bury it, hide it I don't care.
Something is wrong with it, I know I'd do it again if I could... I'd kill that man again and that show had something to do with this malicious, vengeful rage I'm now feeling coarsing through my veins.
I just know that somehow, some way it made me do what I did and that alone is more terrifying than what I watched on that screen that night. I have become more terrifying than what I had been so eager to witness just hours before... My mother always said that cartoons made you cruel... made you violent...
In a way, she was right.

Intro:
Firs of all hello, My name is William and yes this is my real name, as you will notice I'm new in this sub reddit and also using a new account, the reason behind this is because I do value my privacy up to some degree and What I'm about to share is indeed real, this is something I've lived and is not the kind of Story you are comfortable telling to people... in fact very few of the people close to me know this; because I just don't like to talk about it, I know how it sounds and also know what entails for some people who are skeptical about this kind of stuff. So, this time around I just want to share my experience openly for the first time and read some opinions about the subject... I'm not sure if this is the proper subreddit to post, but I understand that people who participate here enjoy this kind of stories.
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Also I'd like to let you know that I'm just a normal guy who is not the kind of person that writes or makes up stories to entertain, English is my second language and I don't usually write, so don't expect me to be 100% grammatically correct, so bare with me.
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Experience:
This happened when I was around 8 years old, my family had move to the house were the events happened 2 years before, we had moved there when I was 6 years old and we lived there for about 4.5 years. Everything seemed normal in that place, there was never anything estrange going on, we had good neighbors and friends, everybody was really nice in that neighborhood, some of my most memorable experiences as a kid are tied to that place as well as people and friends who are dear to me up to this date where I'm 29 years old already, so, we are talking of events that happened about 20.5~ years a go and still to this date as a fully grown man I do remember very vividly what went down on those days I'm about to describe.
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Everything was fine, except for 1 detail, one of the neighbors was an old lady, she used to live alone, all of the kids and some adults used to believe she had some sort of mental problems, she was one of those people who practices witchcraft, in particular, in my family we never cared about that because we were a Christian family, so fear of that kind of practices was not in our books. We treated the lady with respect, specially my parents, because after all if she had mental problems or not she was a old person and deserved respect, but she had a behavior which wasn't very good, I remember her doing some stuff that were disgusting and aimed to look for trouble... but there was never a big issue with her due to the way my family handed the situation with that woman. The real problem with her was that she was right next to our house, she used to throw stuff in front of her house which as you might image used to drain by our front porch as well, I believe what she used to throw were stuff from her witchery practices... can't tell and really don't care, just trying to describe to give a clearer idea of the environment.
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Happened that one day (I remember it was a Saturday, since I used to sleep past 8am on Saturday due to not having school on the weekends), when my mother awakes me to go and have my breakfast, I can recall very clear that she was cleaning the house, she was in the bathroom at that exact moment, she was using bleach and other products cleaning the sink and the bathroom, so she tells me to go to the backyard to wash my hands there, for some reason I get upset (as a kid, grumpy just awaken, by not means), so I get upset and go on doing what I was told to do... while I'm washing my hands in a sink we had in the backyard I'm still grumpy by being awaken like that and sent outside too, so I'm there in a not so nice mood when all the sudden I see someone standing right next to me, I see this shape of a small person or a kid just about 4 inches or less right next to me. I remember thinking it was one of my friends named Michael, I was about 2 years older than him and that standing there was about his size, so I thought it was him.
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The estrange thing about it is that while I'm there watching by the corner of my eye, I see that he is wearing a black tunic, when I notice the black tunic I immediately think that is a bit off...I don't remember if it was Halloween that month or day because I thought he was wearing some costume, I look at his face and then see he's also wearing a mask... a pretty dam good mask, the mask was that resembling a skull, but a skull with something like dry, rotten, green flesh attached to the bones of the skull itself, I look into his eye socket, trying to see his eyes and see if it was really Michael in the costume when all the sudden I realize there was no eyes, there was neither glass or thin fabric how some of them are made... but one thing was sure: I saw fire burning in the inside of the mask, the fire was burning in its mouth, the skull had its mouth open and fire was burning where the tongue was suppose to be at, and the flames were burning up to the eyes sockets.
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When I did realize that what I was seeing looked like real fire, I did shake my head and blinked on disbelieve of what I was looking at and the biggest sense of fear I had experienced ever up to that moment of my young life came over me. This was a head shake and blink done in a fraction of a second, when I did so, I quickly turned my head to see better that thing next to me just to realize that it was not there anymore... the thing was gone in the split second that took me to shake my head and blink... the moment I saw there was nothing there I felt my heart going from idle to like 300% the heart rate and I ran, I ran as fast as I have never ran before... I was so scared that turning a corner I did hit a dryer's corner with my abdomen and I did not feel a thing... the pain came over me once I had calmed down after that shock and realized I had hurt myself.
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One of the biggest errors a parent could do is to not take seriously things their kid says has happened to him/her, we as parents should take everything our kids tell us seriously, because even if what the kid is saying is a lie, you should be worry... you don't know if that is an early flag for a compulsive liar behavior or other kind of problem... On that day I remember telling what I had just experienced to my mother, and even thought she saw me as exalted as I was, her resolve was to tell me I was lying, that I didn't want to go outside because she saw me getting angry when I was told to go outside to wash my hands... so I remember telling her that I had done it already and made her smell the soap fragrance in my hands... for her to still not believe what I was telling her.
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As young as I was, I remember telling to myself that if something like that would be bound to happen to me again, I would not run again. In fact, one of the reasons I thought that, was because I knew what I had just seen, and I understand why most people decide to not believe things like that exist... because it just makes no sense, if you analyze the possibility of "things" that you normally can not see and someone comes to tell you that he/she has seen it... of course you won't believe it. Now a days is even harder to believe this kind of histories, even with the internet flooded with videos and histories of people making up false statements, fake super natural videos just to gain some fame, we could think that it would be easier to have proof of the supernatural now that we live in a world filled with camera lenses everywhere, in the big cities there is virtually no place without an angle covered by a camera watching... this is why there are so many videos out there of camera errors, glitches, people taking advantage and making false supernatural videos, etc. but I also have no doubt that there might be some real footage out there, confused and mixed up among all the fakes.
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After that happened, I kept going with my life as a kid, no telling anybody what I saw that day, excluding the friend I used to spend more time with, I remember telling him at one point, he just thought I wanted to scare him... I left that on there. So about a year passed and I was about 9 years old, I remember I had broken a bone few days before that and we had an appointment for some vaccines and to check on my arm that had healed already, but I had to go on and get checked anyways... so it was about 5:30 in the morning and I remember going outside... again, everybody was inside the bathrooms getting ready, etc. I remember standing there under 2 trees that we had in the backyard, they were big trees, one was a Avocado and a Mango tree, those were 2 big beautiful trees with a lot of leaves and branches, the branches were connected btw the 2 trees, and I remember looking at the blue sky through the leaves and branches. It was still dark at that hour of the day and all I was able to really see in that place was the blue sky that was kind of bright due to the moon, I do remember there was some light... maybe from the moon or might just been just the Sun rising soon. Standing there all the sudden I notice there was something holding the branches of the trees, it was a creature which resembled that shape of a monkey, it was all dark and black except for the blue sky only visible through the branches from where I was standing and there it was, the animal like thing holding the branches... all I was able to see from his face were a pair of white round eyes and a big smile just as white as the eyes... and the thing was looking down on me from the branches, just there watching... I remember being scared and looking up about 3 times, and the thing was still there. I remember finishing whatever it was I was doing and turning back inside the house, once I was at the door where I had some light I remember looking at the branches and seeing nothing there anymore... I didn't run that time... still for a long time I thought it was just the fear which made me see things that day due to my previous experience... and I thought that for a long time.
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During the 4 years we spent living in that place, those were the 2 strange events that I lived, the time passed and we moved to another house in a different city, and here is where things get a bit more serious because of 2 additional events that happened.. But before that, hear me out:
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The reason I mentioned the old witch lady from before was specially for a point that I will make at the end of this post, where I'll explain what's my take on all this. I'm making this parenthesis to explain that this house where we last lived was a house with a very heavy atmosphere, I wont go into detail because I would need to make another post, maybe as long as this to explain in detail what went down there.
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We moved in the second house a year after the 911 events, and I remember that we lived there in peace for a time and all was good. When I was about 13 years old, I had to spend a lot of time in the house by myself, everybody was either working or in the case of my older sister in the university, so I had the house all alone for me for the most part of the day. I used to play baseball, also used to assist to English class and also Computer's class on the afternoons, so I was kind of busy all the time, that's why I remember just chilling out in the house when I had time free for me, except if I had something to do with friends, other way I would just be there, doing something relaxing. During a time where we had problems with the power, we used to get up to 8 hours with no power due to technical problems in the electrical facility for my sector, something happened during one of those evenings.
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I remember being sitting in a couch, when I felt the necessity of going to the bathroom to do what you do there, and I did so, while I'm there sitting in the toilet I remember looking through a small window that the bathroom had from where came some light, because it was kind of late already and the sun had gone down, when I realize there was something there right next to the window... and I'm watching this thing sitting there on the wall, like if it was an spider, but it didn't have spiders like form or legs, it was just a creature like a small monkey on the wall, being upside down looking at me, with a round head, with white round eyes, with a Big smile that all I could see was rectangular teeth smiling at me while taking a sht. I saw it, I did look at it for a good 5-10 seconds and did not blink, because I wanted to see it well, in the back of my mind I knew if I did blink it would go away just like it happened to me before when I was a kid. But the more I looked at it the more fear I was feeling, until the moment when I was being overwhelmed by the fear and then I told to my self in my mind: "I've said I will not run again". So I sat there thinking: "I know you are there watching me, but I'm not running this time, I don't care if you are there, or if I look now and don't see you it doesn't mean a thing because I know that you are still there". So I did finish doing the business I had started in the toiled, stand, washed my hands, and once done went back to the couch I was sitting on before all that.
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Up to this day I have never seen anything like that again and it better stay away as far as it can, because I know what it is, and I knew what it was since I was a kid, but knowing something doesn't gives you the strength or valor to withstand an experience like that and have the courage to not be frighten to the points of running and escaping.
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The second event that I'll talk about in this post to finish, is where things got darker and more serious, also made me confirm that I wasn't crazy, because lets face it, when you yourself have seen things that rarely more people have seen, that is the point where you start questioning your own mental sanity, and I get and understand that this is where and why most people will stop, burry it deep inside and never say a word about what they have lived/experienced, I understand this very well because is not easy for myself to say something like this, not even through this platform and format. That said, everything changes when you have more people who witness something of this nature with you.
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There was this night where my father was sleeping in a comfy chair in our terrace, it was about 10 o'clock that night, when we start noticing a strange smell coming from that direction, it was a nasty smell, very strong, horrible sour, like rotten eggs mixed with rotten piss and feces... I never had or have smelled anything like that after or before that night... I was talking to my sister in her bedroom when the smell came in through the window, she at first thought I had farted or something but then she realized I was still alive, because no living being would have ever had a fart so horrible like that, when all the sudden a lady who was our neighbor was asking if we had smelled that stinking rotten and nauseous bad smell, but we neither knew were it was coming from.
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We started to look from where it was coming from, with no luck, when we thought it had gone away I remember going to my bedroom and there it was, the bad smell inside my bedroom, about 5 mins after that the bad smell had move to our backyard, of course we thought the wind took it, when my father awakens and I hear him calling for me that where I was, so I get inside the house again and there it was, the bad smell had moved from the backyard to the terrace where my father was sleeping. After that the bad smell moved back to my sister's room and it disappeared.
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On the same night my father says that when he called me was because he thought I was playing him a joke or something with one of my friends, because he said that he was sleeping when he over heard 2 people talking to each other in our front door saying: "look here he is, we've found him, look at him how he's sleeping now". Then he opened his eyes and saw like two shadows who moved quickly away once he woke up. We would not believe that was suppose to be important until 3 days after, in the meantime I just thought my father was having some nightmare or something like that, but could have never been so wrong about it.
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Three days after that event, my father had a very serious accident, where he almost lost his life, he was ran over by a SUV, while getting a cross a high way to a buss station where he was going to take a buss coming back from a trip he had done that day, one of his cousins got the call and I had to go along with him to the hospital to see what had happened that night with my father... it was horrible, I had just turned 17 when that happened and trust me when I said that made me mature quicker than intended. Doctors did not believe he would make it, they did not even place him in intensive care until he was operated on 2 times on the head and in one of his legs where the bone was shattered; in total he spent a bit past a month in the hospital, the recovery lasted years before he could work 80-90% like he was before the accident, till this day with aftermath.
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This brings me to the conclusion of my post: I did mention the old witch craft lover lady and the heavy atmosphere in our second house for a reason, the lady used to practice witch craft and those things bring nothing good to the life of a person, as I said at the start, my family was a Christian family and we did not believe in witch craft and till today we do not believe in that, but when I say "we don't believe" we are not saying it is not real, in fact it is real, what I mean with this is that we do not put our faith in that sort of practices, most people prefer to believe nothing supernatural exist, demons, magic, etc. for them is easier to believe nothing of that nature exist because challenges their minds... That said, whoever practices that kind of rituals will just bring curse and misfortune over them and over the people near them, they will also infect the places where they do those practices... it took me over 10 years after moving out from that second house to get to know from one of my ex neighbors that the house in question was a place where the people before us used to also practice witchcraft but this time inside that house... so either you believe or not in what I'm saying you should know that there is an spiritual world out there and we can not see it, and people who practice this kind of dark art will only condemn their soul.
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It took me a long time to analyze why all this things had happened and to reach a conclusion about if I was or not hallucinating about it, but having neighbors and more people as witness, plus that tragic accident and the way it happened, +the neighbor closest to my house coming forward with more testimonies, has helped me to confirm this is deeper. Either If I can finally reach this conclusion doesn't mean I know everything or I'm right about everything, but those are experiences I had to go through in my life... so far. I can also say with all certainty: my family serves God, we are protestant and we know there is a spiritual war going on all the time, and what is in play is not money or territory, is our soul which is on play.
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I can add also that I have listened to podcast where people have described exactly what I saw as a kid on day while washing my hands, and there is no way, but no way at all a random person in the other side of the world would come up and describe something like what I saw with so much detail about that imp size creature. I forgot to mention before that I had never seen before anything with that resemblance on tv or any other way of communication, either be magazines or etc., but one thing I remember, I used to enjoy mighty morphin power rangers until one day I saw one of the enemies called "Wizard of deception", hence not looking like the exact same thing I saw, but it has quite the resemblance to what I had experienced YEARS before seeing that creature on the tv show, what now as an adult makes me realize that maybe all of what we consume on tv is not as healthy or creative as we believe, maybe some artist just recreate what they have already seen before in one way or another... I myself as an artist know this very well, you are taking inspiration all the time from multiple sources... think about it. So, take care of what your children watch on tv.
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I hope you did not fall sleep halfway through my history, and if you did read the whole thing thanks for your attention, I hope it has been at least entertaining to read.

Hello. Just joined Reddit so that I can post this. This is ALL about my ex husband, whom I came to realize about a year after divorcing is a COMPLETE NARCISSISTIC ASSHOLE including but not limited to: gaslighting, manipulation, guilt trips, whining, "my way or the highway" mentality on many things, etc. WARNING: MENTAL ABUSE, MARITAL RAPE
TL:DR Ex husband is a gaslighting, manipulative narcissist who hates the close relationship I have with my family. He has tried everything to get me "completely under his control" (including trying to make me move away from my family to be close to his, to isolate me). No is NOT in his vocabulary. His idea of a perfect marriage is a 1950s wife subservient to husband and basically worships the ground he walks on, just taking all the abuse.
So here's the long, miserable story of my longest but worst relationship to date (I am currently in a long distance relationship with a wonderful man who is THE UTTER OPPOSITE of my ex)
Backstories:
Me - I have a great relationship with my close knit family. I love family things, trips to see family, spending time together, etc.
EX - The asshole. He and his two brothers were adopted by an already retired couple when my ex was 12 months old. His dad constantly gave them EVERYTHING because they were "HiS BaBy BoYs" (they had 2 daughters, both of whom are in their 50s or 60s and have children and grandchildren of their own), none of the three boys were disciplined and if their mom tried, she was reprimanded by their dad.
Things that I now realize are red flags will be marked as such
I (26F, but 15 at the time) met my ex husband (27, but can't remember if he was 15 or 16) in my freshman year of high school. We talked sometimes, always around a mutual friend R (who was a junior or senior at the time) at the end of our required gym class. We never did anything more than talk. A few years go by, I had turned 19 recently, and this was, I think March. I went to WalMart with my mom, my younger sister (who is now 19), and a female cousin that my sister and I are really close with. We are just walking around looking at makeup, nail polish, etc... The section next to that is pets. He is there with his friends, and one of the friends' moms (who I came to find out years later is ACTUALLY INSANE). Anyway, we talk for a little bit, I think nothing of it. At the beginning of May, I get a message from his brother on Facebook. He said EX sent him a letter from jail (major RED FLAG) and told him to send me a message on Facebook, expressing that he wanted to see me after serving his sentence. So he does. June 13, 2013, he shows up on my front porch at 9 in the morning. I invited him in, and after a little bit of talking with my family who was all gathered there, meeting and introducing etc, he asks my mom and dad if he can date me. They agreed, impressed that he would actually ask their blessing to date me first. So, we start dating. I return to school in September (I was lucky to be in a school that started the year after Labor day) to finish the credits I needed for my diploma, which I did in about a month. That was in October. The first Halloween as a couple was spent with me sick on the couch, and my parents allowing him to stay the night, sleeping in our armchair across the living room. Our first Christmas as a couple was spent with him in jail for non payment of previous incarceration-related fines (RED FLAG). So, when he got out of jail again, we spend the next week together from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed every day.
In May 2014, he ended up moving in to my parents' house with me (little did I know that was a HUGE mistake!!!!). We started off living in the basement because we also had some other family members staying with us while they searched for a new house. It was then that I learned he would sometimes be needed to help his cousins and their dad with their firewood "business". Sometimes I went with him, to get out of the house, but every time they would ask me to babysit the kids (his cousins' 4 stepsiblings, basically the definition of crotch goblins) while they all packed in the truck and went to the casino "because they earned it for their hard work" (RED FLAG). By the time my relatives moved out, we found out I was pregnant (twins, one didn't make it past 7 weeks gestation), so we moved upstairs into another room. Things went smoothly for the most part, but he started going to his cousin's house more frequently. He claimed it was to keep things stress free for me.... Yeah, BULL. SHIT.
We ended up getting married a couple weeks after my 21st birthday (I kept joking "Dammit I can't drink! But you all can drink for me!!"). Starting at about 30 weeks, I began feeling labor. Contractions, pressure, all that jazz. At about 33 weeks, I started having really REALLY bad contractions. I went in, and they ended up sending me to a hospital with a NICU just in case. Everything got back under control, and I was sent back home. EX started yelling at me about all the false labor and saying "The next time this fucking happens it better be the real fucking thing or so help me" (DUDE!!! I CAN'T FUCKING CONTROL IT!) and then he said "I'm going to my cousin's. Don't call me, even if you really go into labor. I'm fucking pissed off" (RED FLAGS). At my next appointment, my mom and I (because guess who was still pissed off?) found out my false labor was because I somehow had mono. Crazy.....
Anyway, the day finally came. My water broke, and we headed to the hospital. I got settled in, EX settled on the couch, my mom settled in the rocking armchair. I had to be induced because my labor wasn't progressing. 19 1/2 hours total of labor, 1 hour of pushing, and my little princess was here (currently 5). Her twin (we affectionately named Jelly Bean, because of the way it looked in the ultrasound images) was calcified in the placenta, sooooooooooo tiny!! HiS mAjEsTy EX couldn't be bothered through the night to sit with me and hold my hand through the pain and discomfort because he was "tired" (RED FLAG)........ Yeah, tired, my ass!! My mom stayed up with me holding my hand, and SHE cut her granddaughter's cord. Hospital policy stated that we had to wait 48 hours before release, for observation and helping mother and baby adjust. EX spent maybe a total of 20 hours in the hospital room with me. The rest of that time, he spent walking out to the main road to smoke cigarettes, and walking to Taco Bell to get food (it may or may not be a RED FLAG). After we got back home, he bragged to everyone that he bought everything we needed for our daughter (RED FLAG). No, no he didn't. The strollecar seat combo, the bath, the bouncer.... everything that was BOUGHT was bought by my parents (except the play yard/bed, my aunt bought that because my daughter was born a few weeks early). The things that weren't bought by my parents (a tiny percentage of the clothes and toys) were gifts from the baby shower guests, or from friends I had on Facebook.
It was shortly after we became established as a family (EX, newborn daughter, and I), that he really showed his narcissistic rainbow of colors. Every night, he would go to his friend's house to smoke weed and play Magic the Gathering (a card game my whole family used to play). He would come back in the wee hours, sometimes just before dawn or just after, and if I was awake, he would beg me for sex. If I agreed, it was usually reluctantly (hence, marital rape). If I wasn't (or pretended not to be), he would go to the basement and masturbate. A few times he fell asleep while doing that, and he was lucky I woke him up so he could put his little buddy back in his pants before anyone saw it. After he woke up, he would go fishing, or meet up with another friend, or ANYTHING that involved not being home and supporting his wife and newborn daughter. Before he left, he would tell me "You have (this list) to clean before I get back". If I didn't have it done to his unspoken specifications, he would yell at me (RED FLAG) for hours about it (HELLO, I AM TAKING CARE OF YOUR FUCKING NEWBORN CHILD 24/7 BECAUSE YOU WON'T GET UP OFF YOUR ASS TO HELP ME) and then say "Fuck this shit, I'm going to my cousin's". If there was something that I was upset about, he thought the only solution was sex (marital rape again), instead of talking about why I felt the way I did. "I'm not gonna solve the problem. Here, let's try this bandaid solution that works for me but does nothing for you, and you should feel better because I do". This went on for over a year.
My daughter's first Christmas, we had his mom staying with us (she's such a sweet old woman, and I wish we could have stayed civil, but she hates me for divorcing HeR bAbY bOy). He had a fight with my parents over his constant use of the basement, so much that almost no one could even do laundry as we have the washer and dryer down there. He ran off in a huff, packed a bag, and got ready to go to his cousin's yet again. He wanted me to come with him, and I said no because we had planned for MONTHS to go to my uncle's house a few hours drive away and spend Christmas Eve with them (my favorite uncle and family, we only get to see them once a year if we're lucky). He kept saying "When (cousin) gets here, if you don't go with me, you can expect the silent treatment all weekend".... His mom went with us to my uncle's house and we all had a great time, except when I spent an hour crying over him being an asshole.
The final straw was Halloween 2016, when my daughter was almost 18 months. I was getting things around (a lot of parents I knew especially around my small town make getting ready for trick-or-treating an all-day thing), and EX said "I'm going to visit with my friend. I want all this shit picked up and cleaned before I get back, or I'm not allowing you to go trick or treating." So in my mind, I thought screw that, I'm just going to continue getting us ready! So I did. He got back, and in a sickeningly sweet voice he said "You didn't get everything done, but since I'm a nice husband, you can still go. I'm going to help my cousins so I might not be here when you get back" (RED FLAG). When we got back, his wedding ring was sitting in the middle of the screen on my charging phone (RED FLAG). I was devastated. I messaged him, trying to get clarification. He said that it fell off his finger when he was changing his clothes (BULL. SHIT. It took a ton of pulling to get that damn ring off, there was no fucking way it "just fell off").... I told my parents, and they helped me see what an asshole he was, it was no accident, and if he constantly threatened divorce when he got pissed off, I should give that to him. So I did. I messaged him and said that he could come back to get his things, and we were over. When he got back, he constantly switched between crocodile tears ("Think of what we have, I won't do this again I promise, It's not what you think, BLAH BLAH BLAH BOO HOO") and rage ("What the fuck are you gonna do without me, you're a bitch, you're never gonna find someone else, no one's gonna love you if you keep telling your family everything BLAH BLAH BLAH YELL YELL"). He threatened my dad and uncle, before yelling "FUCK YOU AND YOUR WHOLE FAMILY BITCH" as they drove away
The next day, I did file for divorce. And he did his best to creep back in. We had to serve him an eviction notice because he lived there more than 6 months. The whole 30 days, he stayed there at night. A few times he came into my room to "show me he was sorry" with sex (again, marital rape, as I had JUST filed for divorce). While he was still at my house, milking that damn 30 days for all it was worth, he was supposed to sleep in the living room, with my dad and uncle keeping watch. He snuck back to my room while they were both sleeping, because he probably wanted to "show me he was still in control of everything".
The last week or so before the eviction notice was up, I stayed at my (alive at the time) late grandmother's house because of everything EX was doing. It has been a safe haven for me through the years, and I especially appreciated it at that time. My cousin was also staying there with her two kids (she now has 4). One day he showed up and was telling my daughter "Yeah, daddy's doing real good. He's gonna get you back, yes he is! I got a lawyer, I got a job, I'm getting my own house too" (all lies), and my grandma with her fiery redhead temper "OH, THE HELL YOU ARE!!!!!" and EX had my grandma, my psycho aunt, and my cousin all defending me and my daughter. I went back inside to keep all 3 kids busy, for one because they didn't need to be in the middle of that verbal sword battle, and for two grandma had a pretty small door so there wasn't room for me anyway. Grandma told EX that if he stepped foot on her property again she would call the cops for trespassing. He did, so she did. He was escorted back to my house (with only 3 or 4 days left of the eviction) while my aunt yelled after him.
The next day he wrote up and got notarized a note saying that he would give up all right pertaining to the house and items of (my address). And he left. A month goes by, and he snuck onto the back deck (the bedroom my daughter and I were in was an addition after the house was moved to its current location in the 1950s and leads onto the back deck) and knocked on the window scaring the living shit out of my daughter and I. We ran out to the living room to my dad (by this time his health problems had gotten so bad he couldn't walk up the stairs to his bedroom anymore) and we called the cops. They found him a few houses away "acting innocent" after investigating the yard. Footprints matched, and he went to jail for trespassing, as we could prove with the note in his own writing he gave up his rights to anything on our property. He ended up trespassing multiple times....
Close to my birthday (2017), he decided we wanted to finally begin his visitation. So he took his first.... The. Day. Before. My. Birthday......... He then called our landline phone asking to make sure my daughter was ready for her time with daddy. My dad then took the phone (turning on speakerphone) and asked if he knew it was my birthday. HE LAUGHED AND SAID YES THAT IS WHY I'M TAKING MY VISITATION NOW! I was devastated. I cried all that day. I cried the day he took her. I cried every time the phone rang, because he called to gloat that he had my daughter "Here, listen! Hear how happy she is? (laughter at my expense)". That night, he GLORIOUSLY called and asked if we could come pick up both of them. Obviously everyone that could, packed into the vehicle and we went to rescue my daughter. So we brought her back home (with extra baggage...EX). The whole way back home he kept saying "I couldn't get her to sleep, she wouldn't sleep, she didn't this, she didn't that." (NO SHIT!!! SHE WAS BREASTFED AND DIDN'T LIKE THE TASTE OF COW'S MILK AND NEEDED HER OWN MILK TO SLEEP) "But when we get back, she's sleeping in the living room with me. It's still my visit". And I internally laughed the whole way home. When we finally got home he said to me "Go ahead and take her back to the bedroom. She'll only cry out here." Aye-aye, captain. That was a great birthday, because I got my daughter back.
In the next 5-6 weeks, he only took a couple overnight visits at his buddy's house (which he gave my daughter PTSD from shoving hamburger down her throat, so she's afraid of new foods, and he locked her in a dark bedroom by herself so she screamed for 6 hours while he played a card game with his friends and that made her afraid of the dark, and combined with knocking on the window at night gave her night terrors that she still occasionally has), but the majority of his visits, he asked me to pick her up for some excuse or other. Some of them he ended up taking at my house (mini story, he went through my phone which I should have taken with me in hindsight while I nursed my daughter in our bedroom and discovered I was talking to another man romantically, and blew up stating we were still married because the divorce wasn't finalized, and he was kicked out and told he could never come back).
In mid-April, EX sweet talked me into reconciliation (hindsight is 20/20 BIIIIIIGGGG MISTAKE), so I went to his friend's house whenever it was his day for visitation. Every time it went the same: we get there, he sets her up to play with his friend's daughter's toys, I sit on the couch with EX sitting uncomfortably close. We do something with his friends, go back to the house, make dinner, get ready for the night. He sweet-talked me during each of these visits into having sex again (since the divorce was not finalized, it was marital rape again because I first said no). Over the next 3 weeks, I made excuse after excuse to NOT see him ("(daughter) isn't feeling well, I'm not feeling well, I have chores to do, (daughter) is already sleeping" etc). Sometimes I relented, to my eventual dismay.
The final straw in that God-awful reconciliation: May 27, 2017, my younger brother graduated. So did his friend's sister. He showed up to the school gym "to support (friend's sister)" (no, it was because my brother was graduating and he knew I'd be there). He took my daughter under the pretense of "giving my back a break" but after the grads threw their caps he said "Ok (daughter), tell mommy you'll see her in a few days because daddy wants to see you!" I was livid. He told me he would give her back at the end!!!! So after I got home, I packed a bag for me and my daughter, and I went to his friend's house. The sister was sitting at the table with some of her friends drinking beer (I could have called the cops for underage drinking, but I was "nice"), while EX and his friend were in the backyard starting an absolute MONSTER of a bonfire, and one of his other friends was watching my daughter and her son in EX's friend's daughter's bedroom while they were playing. I should have picked her up and took her back home then and there but I didn't. I stayed. There was a cookout. People left. Only a small handful of people were left and stayed because they didn't want to drive home drunk. I pretended to sleep, but I was awake all night. At about 6 in the morning, I left my sleeping (soon-to-be) EX, and I took my daughter back home. At about noon, I got a message that I need to come back and apologize to his friend's sister. I said Why? I didn't do anything wrong? So he explained that the sister and another friend (also underage, also drinking) told him that I made a snide comment about her drinking at her age and that someone should call the cops and I needed to apologize. I tell him I never made any comment of the sort, I was telling the truth, and why didn't he believe me? So he retorted I needed to come apologize because it's his friend's sister. I agree to come over and apologize, although I said nothing of the sort, and the only comment I made was in my head. So I do. I left my daughter at home with my mom, and went to apologize for something I didn't say.
That was the last time my daughter saw her dad, visit wise. I stayed inside, basically a prisoner in my own home but by choice, for a month. The only time I left was to go shopping at Walmart. When I finally decided to venture bravely out of the house into my own town, my mom, daughter, and I met my auntie, her kids, and her boyfriend at the park. He showed up, and tried to kiss me and hold my daughter. I handed my daughter to my mom because if I continued to hold her, I knew he would try to grab her from me, and I would let her go because I would never hurt my own daughter. I also knew HE would NEVER try that shit with my mom. He caused a scene, and my auntie's boyfriend called the cops. Cop showed up and question us. In questioning him, EX basically said point blank, if he got his hands on my daughter, he would kidnap her. The cop kept telling him to go to court because he couldn't do anything about custody issues. The cop finally left, but EX didn't. He wouldn't. He refused. I ended up getting in my mom's van, while I waited for EX to leave. Auntie's boyfriend had enough and asked my mom if he could take the van for a drive. We drove through the town's "rich neighborhood" and when we got back, my dad and uncle were there. I told them all what happened, and dad said I should call the non-emergency line and report sexual harassment because EX tried kissing me. The officer said someone would be by to give all 4 adults a statement to fill out. An officer came, gave us the blank statements and left. We all filled them out, and took them back. EX was arrested a week later. I got a PPO (personal protective order)
After he got out of jail, he kept deliberately trying to run into me. I saw him looking for me constantly. Every time he did, I went somewhere else. At least 4 times, he went to jail for a PPO violation. After the 4th time, the prosecutor told me that if it ever happened again, he would be sent to PRISON for a LONG time. My divorce was FINALLY finalized on August 14, 2017. EX has not seen me (but I have seen him around town) since then.
Thanks to everyone who read my whole story. I am happy to report I am in a long distance relationship with a WONDERFUL man who is THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE of EX. Due to the pandemic we can't as of yet, but as soon as we can, we both want to get married so he can adopt my daughter and get EX out of our lives for good.