The Writer

TW: This story depicts violence, abuse, and death. Reader discretion is advised.

Peter Pan's Vengeful Recruitment

It’s said children are born inherently pure, but what if they’re left in the care of vile and heartless adults? Most kids can overcome such cruelty, but others can’t; the brutality of that reality can corrupt their hearts over time. Sebastian Wolf’s mom, Perdita, was a huge Disney fan, both as a child and an adult. She even possessed the beauty of a Disney princess, with a slender body, flowing, ginger hair, lively blue eyes, skin as pale as fallen snow, and an angelic smile that could light up a room. Despite his mom’s outer Princess beauty, she was as ugly as a hag inside. Sebastian’s young life wasn’t a fairytale at all. He was the product of a one-night stand, so his father’s true identity was a total mystery to the family. Perdita was also a reckless and selfish twenty-year-old, often neglecting her responsibilities as a mother. Her family reluctantly took care of him for her.

The whole family lived in the Bronx, New York. They all lived in the same apartment complex, so even though his family wasn’t affectionate, he never went hungry, and he went to a good school. He was also hyper independent for the tender age of six. He was pretty oblivious to the fact that Perdita was indifferent about motherhood until the night before his seventh birthday. He remembered the heavy, sticky heat of that June night. The air conditioner in the window was blowing loudly; the hum almost drowned out the city's busyness. He remembered that he had been playing outside most of the day, and he was sweaty. Thankfully, his pale skin wasn’t sunburned, but his freckles were disconnected. He was taking a bath that night before bed, while his mother was in the kitchen, on the phone with her new boyfriend, Nick. Sebastian didn’t like him; no one did. Nick was an unbathed, chubby, and short twenty-nine-year-old bum. He had long, blonde, unkempt, greasy hair, rotten teeth, and nausea-inducing breath from years of alcohol drinking and drug usage, and he always wore a stained Puff Daddy t-shirt. He gave Sebastian the creeps for some reason when he was near him. Nick reminded him of a dirty, grinning hobgoblin. However, this creepy ‘hobgoblin’ made his mom smile, so Sebastian didn’t dare to say anything.

Sebastian also remembered feeling excited that hot summer night, for his birthday was the next day. He knew that he wasn’t getting any gifts, but his mom always made a double-chocolate cake to celebrate. After Sebastian washed his entire body, he carefully stepped out of the tub and brushed his teeth, his mom still paying no attention. She didn’t even get off the phone and come into his bedroom until he had his pajamas on and tucked himself into the bed. Without saying goodnight or kissing him, she aloofly ruffled his strawberry blonde hair. Without a word, she was about to turn off the light and shut the door behind her when he sweetly uttered, “Mommy?”

Still standing in the doorway, she let out an exasperated sigh and exclaimed, “What?!”

“Can I help you make the cake tomorrow?”

“What cake?”

“The cake for my birthday. My birthday is tomorrow, remember Mommy?”

This wouldn’t be the first time that she had forgotten.

“Oh, yeah,” she said nonchalantly with a smirk, “Sorry, I won’t be home. Nick and I will be heading to Vegas tomorrow, and you’ll be staying with your Aunt Kortney for a week.”

“But Mommy, isn’t my birthday special?”

She rolled her eyes and said more harshly, “My plans with Nick are more important than your damn birthday! Nobody really cares about a kid’s birthday, but maybe someone will pick up a cake from the store just to make you happy. Now, go to sleep before I tell your Aunt Kortney that you’re backtalking me and being a spoiled brat!”

Other family members weren’t violent. However, Aunt Kortney, a large woman with blonde hair that was always in a tight bun, dark, demonic-looking eyes, and a hair-trigger temper, had no problem beating kids to ‘punish’ them, using an actual handheld black leather whip. The younger family members were, of course, terrified of making her angry.

Tears filled his hazel eyes, and he meekly said, “Okay, Mommy, I’m sorry. Goodnight. I love you.”

Perdita turned off the lights and slammed his bedroom door behind her. Sebastian lay in the dark, quietly crying and feeling abandoned and unwanted for the first time. The next day, he was dropped off at Aunt Kortney’s apartment. Perdita gave her a backpack of his clothes and the key to their place. She didn’t say goodbye or “happy birthday” to Sebastian when she left. She was too busy making out disgustingly with Nick, looking as though she was eating his face. No one acknowledged Sebastian’s birthday that day. Aunt Kortney just gave him a little whack in the back of the head with the handle of her whip for ‘sulking.’ At lunchtime, he found a box of Pecan Spinwheels in the kitchen. While Aunt Kortney watched Jerry Springer, he sat on the floor of the spare room and ate all eight Spinwheels, softly singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to himself, rocking his body back and forth, and sobbing.

Perdita only called once during her trip to say that she and Nick had eloped. No one in the family was happy that they got married, especially Sebastian. He didn’t want to call the hobgoblin Step Dad, but he didn’t have to worry about that, though. A week turned into a month, and a month turned into five months. She and Nick finally came back home in October, but they weren’t planning to pick up Sebastian anytime soon. This was going to be a quick trip back home, for Perdita had just come back to go to court and sign her parental rights of Sebastian over to Aunt Kortney because Nick didn’t want a kid. This life-altering moment occurred while Sebastian was at school. He was so blissfully unaware that he drew a picture of a scarecrow for his mom. Aunt Kortney had told him that morning that his mom was coming back, and he assumed that she was going to pick him up from his aunt’s apartment after school. He remembered humming cheerfully as he got off the bus. Aunt Kortney was waiting for him with a strangely grim look on her face. This look made him feel uneasy, but he tried to ignore it.

“Hi, Aunt—”

She didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence. She abruptly took his hand and silently ushered him inside.

She was acting very weird, and he was getting scared, so he quickly asked, “When is Mommy coming to get me?”

“She’s not.”

“But you said—”

She then said so coldly and matter-of-factly, “Your mother only came back long enough to sign her parental rights over to me and leave. You’ll be living with me now. She didn’t want you anymore.”

He was devastated and confused by those shattering words. “I don’t understand.”

“What don’t you understand, child? She left you for that piece of crap of a man!”

Out of absolute fear and anger, he cried out, “You’re lying! Mommy would never do that to me! She has made lots of mistakes, but she loves me! YOU’RE LYING, LYING, LYING!!”

Aunt Kortney furiously hissed, “HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A LIAR, YOU UNGRATEFUL, LITTLE…”

She then grabbed him by the wrists and picked up her whip. She savagely beat him, his body being covered in bruises and bloody welts, blood soaking the walls. The pain of the beating was extreme, but the pain of the abandonment was more tremendous. Sebastian knew he would never see his mom again, and that day was the last day of his innocence. He and Aunt Kortney then suddenly moved from the Bronx, New York, to St. Louis, Missouri, the next month.

Five years later, Sebastian was now twelve years old. He had turned into a nervous, resentful, and heartbroken boy. He had dyed his strawberry blonde hair jet-black, and his aunt had beaten him for doing it without her permission, but he thought it was worth it. The natural color of his hair reminded him of his mom, whom he still held a grudge against. Since he moved in with his aunt, he had been homeschooled because his aunt claimed that it was cheaper than buying school supplies, but Sebastian knew it was really because she didn’t want anyone to see his scars from the almost daily beatings he received from her. Despite this horrific situation, he was getting a somewhat decent education. He was an extremely intelligent kid, and he could absorb anything that he read. He also had proficient but terrible motivation to learn quickly; if he said or wrote the wrong answer, his hands would get whipped. He wanted to protect his hands because he loved to draw. He was a talented artist. He could draw anything with great detail: trees, landscapes, and animals. But his favorite things to draw were creepy versions of Disney characters. His mom used to love these characters, so drawing them grotesquely was another form of rebellion against her.

It was September 1st, in late afternoon, and he had just finished all of his schoolwork. He had put two frozen dinners in the microwave oven to cook, as Aunt Kortney was coming home from shopping soon and expected him to make dinner before she got back. While Sebastian was waiting for the meals to cook, he got his one-dollar sketchpad and started drawing a morbid picture of Cinderella murdering her evil stepmother and sisters, impaling their skulls with the heel of her glass slipper. He had always wondered why Cinderella was never vengeful towards her stepmother and sisters. If he had been able to, he would’ve had his revenge and shown his family the pain he had felt all those years. Just as the timer went off, Aunt Kortney practically burst through the door and bellowed, “DINNER BETTER BE READY!”

Sebastian quickly got the dinners from the microwave oven and began setting out the plates and silverware on the dining room table.

Walking behind him, she remarked with such venom, “The table’s not ready yet?”

“The frozen dinners just finished,” he explained.

“Have you ever heard of setting the table while the meal cooks?!”

“You’re right,” he said with a trembling voice, backing himself against the wall, “I’m sorry. I just got to drawing and—”

With fury, she exclaimed, “YOU WERE DRAWING BEFORE YOUR CHORES WERE DONE?!”

“I’m sorry…don’t…”

She got her whip from the kitchen drawer and said, “How many beatings do you need before you learn, child?”

She raised the whip above her head to beat him, and he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the agony, but nothing happened. Something warm just splashed in his face, and he heard a loud thud, then a strange gurgling sound. He slowly opened his eyes, and to his horror, he saw that it was blood. Someone had cut Aunt Kortney’s throat from behind. Lying on the floor, she looked up at him, holding her gushing wound. She was making horrible choking sounds as the blood squirted out from her mouth and sliced throat. Her usually evil-looking eyes were now pleading and overflowing with tears. Shell-shocked, Sebastian watched her die as her blood spread out under his feet. He knew he should’ve gotten help, but he couldn’t move or think. He could barely breathe.

When she was finally dead, he looked up and saw who was holding the blade. It was a boy who was his age or maybe younger. Sebastian couldn’t tell. The boy had long, wildly frizzy, fiery red hair and emerald eyes that had a slight red glow in the pupils. His outfit was made out of skeleton autumn leaves, sap, and cobwebs. He was barefoot. He was holding a golden dagger that was dripping with Aunt Kortney’s blood, and blood had splattered all over him. As Sebastian tried to say something, he saw that the boy was levitating in the air.

Sebastian screamed and ran to the drawer, grabbing a knife and holding it out in front of him.

“Don’t be scared,” said the boy in a sing-song voice, flying towards him, “I’m here to take away!”

“Are you a demon or something?!”

“No, Sebastian, don’t be silly! People call me Peter Pan.”

“But Peter Pan isn’t real,” Sebastian replied with a quiver in his throat, still holding the knife in front of him, “He’s just a fictional—Wait, how do you know my name?”

“Of course, I’m real,” smiled Peter, “Where do you think Mr. Barrie really got the idea for his book? And I’ve been watching you off and on for a long while; First, with your awful mother, then with your monster of an aunt. I wanted to save you sooner, Sebastian, but your window was always closed, locked, or blocked until today. Your bedroom window was open upstairs.”

Sebastian didn’t believe it at that moment. He didn’t know what to do, so he played along and questioned the murderous, flying boy, hoping to keep him busy.

“But why did you kill my Aunt Kortney? I thought you only killed pirates.”

“Well, I don’t trust any adult in the first place,” said Peter, smirking, “but I think she was a blackhearted pirate in disguise. I couldn’t let her hurt you again. I’m going to take you away to Neverland!”

Then, he crowed loudly.

“Take me away,” Sebastian repeated softly, longing for escape.

“Yes,” grinned Peter, “forget them, Sebastian. Forget them all. Come with me, where you’ll never, never, never have to worry about evil grownups hurting you again. I’ll teach you to ride the wind’s back and away we go!”

Hearing Peter’s words, something within Sebastian snapped, and he began to dissociate from everything. He convinced himself that his aunt’s death was only a dream. He even convinced himself that his mom’s abandonment and all of those years of abuse were just part of the dream, and when he would eventually wake up, his mom and the rest of his family would be there to love him. Since he thought it was all a dream, he finally believed Peter and dropped the kitchen knife, deciding to go with him.

Sebastian asked with a smile, “Will I be a lost boy?”

“Yes,” Peter replied, wiping the blood off his face and his gold dagger with a dishrag, “but I need your help with recruitment too.”

“Recruitment? I thought you just found lost babies who fall out of their strollers.”

“Yeah, that’s what I usually do,” said Peter, throwing the dishrag to Sebastian so he could wipe off the blood too, “but I want to get all the lost children like you, who have heartless parents that hurt them.”

“So what do we do,” asked Sebastian, “Go to window to window?”

Peter chuckled and said, “I was thinking of something a little faster. I’ve noticed that other kids love something called Disney.”

“Yes, most kids know you from an old Disney animated movie.”

Peter bleamed, “Oh, yeah, I love that one! It’s so funny and I…”

“What does Disney have to do with your recruitment?”

“Well, Tink has been dressing like a gory zombie and has been going into the dreams of the bosses of Disney.”

As if on cue, Tinkerbell flew downstairs and into the kitchen, not as a scary zombie, but in her full mystical beauty. Unlike the cartoon, she wore her blonde long hair down, and she wore a cut-out green leaf dress that accentuated her curves and cleavage. Her blue eyes sparkled like sequins, and her lips were bright red, plump, and juicy-looking. She flew in front of Sebastian’s face and winked at him, which made him blush.

“The bosses at Disney got inspired,” Peter continued, “Now, they’re looking for animators who can quickly make creepy Disney cartoons for Halloween next month. I want to put a special message in those cartoons.”

“But how?”

Peter picked up Sebastian’s sketchpad from the kitchen counter, and grinning micheviously, he said, “That’s where you come in. We’ll use your awesome drawings.”

“But will they let a kid be an animator?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, I have a plan, as always.”

A pinecone then magically appeared in Peter’s hand, and he put it on the floor. Tink blew some golden pixie dust on it, and the pinecone began to grow taller and taller until it morphed into a lanky adult man with salt-and-pepper hair, a brown suit, and glasses.

“We’ll tell him what to say,” smiled Peter, “and he’ll show them your drawings. Trust me, they won’t be able to resist! Are you ready to come on this adventure with me?”

Sebastian nodded excitedly, and Peter crowed proudly. Suddenly thinking about the true crime documentaries he had seen, Sebastian put the bloody dishrag in his pocket, so it wouldn’t be any useful evidence to find Aunt Kortney’s murderer. Tink then covered the two boys and the fake man with pixie dust, and all four flew out of Sebastian’s bedroom window to Neverland, leaving Aunt Kortney’s body downstairs. The St. Louis police found her body three days later when the family in New York got concerned. The scene was violent and bloody. They also saw that Sebastian was missing, and the police assumed that he was kidnapped. An Amber Alert went out, but, of course, no one saw anything. The police only had two clues: a bizarre, golden, glitter-like substance and multiple footprints in the blood, but these clues led nowhere. The murder and kidnapping were rapidly becoming cold cases within weeks.

On September 4th, the fake man, whom Peter named James, was in a meeting with the Disney executives, pitching a creepy Disney cartoon series.

"Kids act all afraid of anything creepy or bizarre," James said charismatically, "and cry to their mommies and daddies to protect them, but it's all a lie. We know that kids nowadays secretly want to be scared. They want the thrill. They want the strangeness and danger of it all. Remember the Creepypasta craze a couple of years ago? They're supposed to be terrified of some kind of a boogie man, but little do the parents know that their children are seeking out the monsters for fun, so why not give them what they want?"

The moment that the Disney executives heard his pitch and saw the drawings, they immediately got excited and gave the studio the green light to make the short. Money signs were in their eyes. The executives made James the head animator on this project as well. The short was going to be part of a thirty-minute block on Disney XD called Twisted Wednesday. Twisted Wednesday was going to be one or two creepy cartoons, aimed at kids over seven and teens. The concept was that everything that people knew and loved about Disney was going to be twisted into something dark and freaky. The idea was perfect for Halloween.

The script and art were quickly finalized, despite complaints from some of his colleagues. The short was animated and voiced within weeks with the help of caffeine and secretly with pixie dust.

On Wednesday, October 1st, the animated short, which was called "No Strings to Hold Me Down," premiered nationwide at six PM. "No Strings to Hold Me Down" was about an eleven-year-old Lee and his controlling, beefy, bully-of-a-father, Gregory. Lee, a small but slender boy who loved singing and dancing, wanted to try out for the school play instead of the football team, but his father, who was the football coach at Lee's school, shouted, "No son of mine will be a wuss and make a fool of myself or me on stage!"

"But Dad...," tried Lee.

Lee's mother, Janette, a submissive, skittish woman, said nervously: "M-m-m-maybe he can t-t-try out for both. He does love p-p-performing."

Gregory got in his wife's face and screamed: "I SAID NO! THIS IS MY HOUSE AND...!"

Lee ran out of the house crying before he could hear the rest. He just wished that his father would accept him. He walked to the park and sat on the swing. Suddenly emerging from the shadows, an evil Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck walked towards him. They were the same size as him. Goofy was foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog and was smiling hard with vampire-like teeth. His right eye also kept twitching, and he let a creepy, hysterical little giggle out after every word. Donald wore a tattered, blackened sailor outfit. He had red, shifty eyes and a beak that was longer than usual. He looked angrily, accusingly, predatorily at anyone who passed by him. Lee didn't notice the changes in the Disney characters.

"Oh, hi Mickey," said Lee sadly.

"What's wrong, pal," asked Mickey in a high-pitched, scratchy, and demonic voice, "Was your dad yelling again?"

Lee told them the whole story. As he spoke and as the frame zoomed in closer on Mickey's face for a minute, the flames in Mickey's eyes burned brighter and brighter with anger and revenge.

"Ahhh, what a jerk," spat Donald when Lee was done speaking.

"Yeah, you love singing," laughed Goofy.

"We have to do something," said Mickey ominously.

Then, the three of them gathered in a circle, whispering to each other for a few minutes. After they agreed, Mickey said to Lee, "Tell your dad to come to our house. We have a surprise for him."

'Their house' was actually the Disney World theme park, home of all Disney characters.

Not understanding, Lee asked: "Why?"

"Don't worry," grinned Mickey with a wink, "we'll take care of him."

Lee then smiled knowingly.

The next day, Lee and his father came to Disney World. Lee had lied and told him that he wanted to say sorry for making him mad, that he and his Disney friends had a surprise for him. Even though Gregory was a tough, cruel man, he had a soft spot for Disney, especially for the movie Pinocchio. Mickey met them at the entrance. The theme park seemed quiet and oddly half-empty.

"Hi, my pals," said Mickey with fake enthusiasm, "Are you ready to be the first ones to get on the new Pinocchio ride?"

Gregory's eyes brightened, and he exclaimed, "Is that my surprise?"

"Yeah," smiled Mickey.

"Well, Son, you're forgiven," Gregory told Lee, "Let's do this!"

"Yes," grinned Mickey diabolically, staring at the television viewers, "Let's."

Mickey then led them into Fantasyland to a wooden train ride called No Strings Attached. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was waiting for them by the ride. Like always, he had bendy, stretchy, and fluid body parts. In video games and other cartoons, Oswald was usually cheerful. However, in this cartoon, his mouth was disturbingly sewn shut with black thread into a wide, crude smile, and there was hidden rage in his beady eyes. Again, no one in this cartoon noticed and/or acknowledged these changes. When he saw Gregory, he stretched his long ears out and wrapped them tightly around Gregory's wrists and dragged him to the ride.

"Whoa, buddy," Gregory exclaimed with a chuckle, "take it easy now!"

"He's just excited for you to have fun," lied Mickey.

Lee just smiled.

Lee and Gregory sat on the ride. Using his ears and hands, Oswald put the seat belts on them. While he was putting the safety bars in place, too, he slammed one of them into Gregory's gut. Gregory grunted unhappily but smiled. The train car rolled into a tunnel, slowly passing moving scenes of Pinocchio. What looked like animatronic characters were popping out, as the song "I've Got No Strings" played in the background, but something was off about these characters. This was the only time that someone was aware that something was different.

Stromboli's and Geppetto's skin was gray, and their eyes were yellow and dead-looking. Pinocchio's blue eyes were bulging out of his head like a maniac, and he had a furious scowl on his face. All three were also monstrous in size.

Gregory asked Lee: "Is this a jump-scare ride?"

Lee just sat there silently.

Then, the train car abruptly stopped in front of an old-fashioned wooden stage with red curtains. Stromboli, Geppetto, and Pinocchio started to walk towards them.

"Wow," exclaimed Gregory, still thinking that it was just part of the ride, "this technology is amazing!"

The three characters came closer to him, and without warning, they undid his seatbelt and the safety bar.

"Hey," he yelled, "isn't that dangerous?!"

Pinocchio then grabbed him by the throat and pulled him out of the cart. This was when he realized with horror that these weren't animatronics. They were alive.

"Help," he choked.

Pinocchio threw him hard on the ground, and while he was coughing and heaving, he tried to crawl back to the train car, but Geppetto stopped him and flipped him on his back, sitting on him. He tried fighting back, swinging punches and biting, but it was no use.

"Help me, Son," he begged Lee.

Lee just sat back and watched. Oswald then walked in.

"Help...me...Oswald," Gregory pleaded breathlessly, "please."

Oswald ignored him. Like an octopus playing with its prey, Oswald wrapped his ears around Gregory's wrists, then his arms around Gregory's ankles, stretching and stretching until Gregory's clothes ripped and his arm and leg joints broke with a loud, sickening POP. Gregory screamed in tremendous pain and terror. Geppetto got off his broken body, and Pinocchio got a dagger from behind the stage, slashing Gregory's hands, and in a 3D-like moment, blood splashed at the television viewers. Blood continued to gush out all over, as the characters cackled. All that Gregory could do was scream and tremble. All those years in football couldn't help him now.

Stromboli then put a needle and thread in each of Gregory's hand gashes. The pain was torturous, and he almost passed out a few times, but they used smelling salts to wake him up. Stromboli stitched up the wounds but left thick threads in Gregory's hands. Oswald let go of him. They carried him onto the stage and, with robes and the threads in his hands, they strung him up, putting him in a standing position.

Then, Mickey, Goofy, and Donald walked in. Mickey smiled at Gregory and hopped in the cart with Lee, asking, "Feel better, pal?"

Lee nodded yes and grinned.

Goofy laughed, "So what song are you doing for your audition?"

"I think that I'll sing 'I've Got No Strings'," replied Lee.

"Perfect," exclaimed Stromboli joyfully with an Italian accent, "why don't you practice right now? Our new puppet can dance for us." He was referring to Gregory.

Oswald clapped vigorously in agreement.

"Okay," said Lee happily.

He started singing. Oswald stretched his ears, pulling the threads and making Gregory dance. Each step was agony. Gregory was crying, screeching, and desperately imploring them to stop, but no one heard because everybody began to sing with Lee. Gregory's pleas were muffled over their loud voices.

"I've got no strings

To hold me down

To make me fret

Or make me frown

I had strings

But now I'm free

There are no strings on me!"

After the song finished, an animated Peter Pan abruptly popped up on screen. He grinned widely and whispered, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.”

Billions of kids and teens were watching it on television or streaming it online. Among these kids was nine-year-old Robin Valdez from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a meek boy with brunette hair. He could relate to Lee because his dad, Rick, a muscular giant of a man with grey hair, was an abusive bully, too. Robin always felt different; he liked feminine things sometimes, and his mom, Carrie, an open-minded woman with dark brown hair, encouraged it, while Rick tried to literally beat normalcy into him. Robin liked to play with both girls' toys and boys’ toys. One time when he was five, he was pretending that his tiny plastic green Army men were living together in his mom’s old, pink dollhouse. Since she thought toys shouldn’t be gendered, his mom thought it was cute, but Rick thought otherwise. When his mom went out to shop later that day, his dad beat him with a belt, left him on the floor in a small puddle of blood, and took the pink dollhouse with the Army men in it and burned it. When he was seven, Rick caught him dancing to BTS on his iPad. Rick broke the iPad and twisted Robin’s arm so hard that it nearly went out of the socket. Even though Carrie wanted him to be himself, she turned a blind eye to her husband’s abuse of him.

On the day that Robin was watching the cartoon short, he and his dad had just come home from the church’s hockey team tryout, a half hour before. Robin really wanted to take singing lessons, but he didn’t dare to ask, so he tried a sport to make his dad happy. He didn’t make the team that day because he kept falling on the ice. When they got in the car, Rick punched him in the stomach, making him gasp and cry out. Then, he punched him in the jaw on the right side, and it automatically swelled. He sobbed quietly all the way home. When they got home, his dad threw him in his room and tossed a bag of frozen peas at him, saying, “Stop crying and take care of your face like a man!” He then slammed the door.

To calm himself, Robin turned on his television. He watched the sinister cartoon short while he put the frozen pea on his swollen face. The cartoon gave him the creeps, but when Peter Pan spoke, anger and bravery filled Robin. He snuck into the kitchen and pulled a butcher knife from the block. He wrapped the knife and his hand in a cloth. Then, he snuck behind his dad in the living room. His dad was sitting in his recliner, drinking a beer and watching football. Robin accidentally bumped his foot against the recliner, and when his dad opened his mouth to yell, he swiftly shoved the blade of the knife down his dad’s throat, penetrating the trachea, larynx, and lungs. His dad began to choke on the blade and cloth and aspirate on his blood and beer. Despite the severe injury, he tried to get up, and that’s when the real Peter Pan, Tink, and Sebastian appeared. Peter and Sebastian were wearing green leather gloves with pixie dust on the fingertips. An elder fairy had told Tink that pixie dust could hide fingerprints, so the boys dripped gloves in pixie dust to hide evidence during these adventures.

The two boys hopped on the man and held him down. Tink clapping, Peter’s dagger and a glove appeared in Robin’s hand.

Peter gleefully instructed, “Run him through!”

Putting on the glove, Robin stabbed his dad in the stomach repeatedly with fury and eerie bliss until he was dead. Peter then pulled the dagger from his gut and the butcher knife and cloth from his throat, putting all items in a brown knapsack that he was carrying. Tink blew some pixie dust on the dead body, making it float in the air. Peter and Sebastian strung it up with jump ropes on the tall bookcase in the living room, as if Robin’s dead dad was a marionette. Robin was happily talking to Peter as the boys finished their morbid task.

Robin gliddily asked, “Am I going to be a lost boy?”

“Yep, and no grown-up will ever hurt you again. Every day will be a fun adventure!”

Robin did love his mom still, but he hated it there. No one attempted to help him there, so he thought Neverland would be a better home. By the time his mom was in the driveway, they were already gone. The Philadelphia police found the same things as the St. Louis police did: a dead caregiver, a missing kid, and an odd golden substance in the blood and on the body. The Philly police tried to question the mother, but she was too hysterical.

Meanwhile, after the cartoon aired, some kids were traumatized by it and had nightmares for months, but a lot of kids were fascinated by the macabre cartoon. It was a hit. #TwistedWednesday was trending all night on social media. They kept talking about it, sharing clips and memes of it. Some parents were outraged, demanding that Disney not air the cartoon again and stop Twisted Wednesday altogether. They said that it was too violent and gory, but Disney didn't listen. Despite the minor backlash, there was a second cartoon on October 8th.

It was called "Elsa's Makeover." Mickey and Elsa were in her ice castle. Elsa was complaining to Mickey about how she wished that the men in her kingdom didn't fawn over her, that people didn't focus on her beauty. She wanted people to admire her intelligence and leadership.

"Hold on," said Mickey. He then walked into another room for a second. When he came back, he was wearing his Sorcerer's Apprentice outfit. Normally, the outfit was a red robe and a blue, pointed hat with white moons and stars, but in this cartoon, he wore a midnight black robe and a black, pointed hat with a big inverted pentagram in front of it.

He then began singing "Let It Go" in his demonic voice. Each time that he said the words: let it go, he thrust his hands in front of himself, casting an ice spell on Elsa. At first, when the ice spell hit her, she just smiled and said, "The cold doesn't bother me."

By the third time, she gasped in slight pain and almost fell back when it hit her.

"Alright, that's enough, Mickey," she said with a forced laugh.

He didn't listen. By the fourth time, she began to shiver.

"Stop...now!"

By the fifth and sixth time, she was shivering violently, having trouble keeping her balance.

"Please stop, Mickey," she cried, "I can't feel my body...too cold!"

When she tried to move her fingers, her now frozen left hand cracked and fell off. She screamed in complete terror and shock. Her severed, frozen hand then bounced down a staircase and shattered into pieces. She began sobbing and trembling uncontrollably. By the end of the song, she was shaking on the floor; cold, broken, and frostbitten. Her skin was bluish gray with icicles dangling from her face and whole body.

"Well, Elsa, it looks like the cold does bother you after all," sneered Mickey, "but at least people won't focus on your beauty for a while."

Then, his sinister laughter echoed throughout the castle, and before the screen faded to black, the animated Peter appeared in front of Elsa, saying, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.”

Ten-year-old Tabitha Holden from Los Angeles, California, was watching this cartoon. She lived with her father and stepmother. Her father, Joe, a jolly and loving man, doted on her, but he was rarely home due to his job as a talent manager. Her stepmother, Mariah, a judgmental and vain woman, mentally and physically abused her. Mariah was a former beauty queen who couldn’t let go of her glory days. She reminded Tabitha of a real-life, plastic Barbie: dyed blonde hair and blue eye contacts with too much Botox and makeup. Joe was rich, and they lived in a huge house with ten bedrooms, ten bathrooms, a spacious ballroom, an indoor pool, a movie theater, a fancy laundry room, a massive kitchen, and a walk-in freezer. When her father was home, Mariah was the sweetest, but when they were alone, she was so cruel to Tabitha. She wouldn’t feed her at times because she didn’t want Tabitha to be ‘fat.’ She would slap Tabitha if she didn’t wear something fashionable out in public. She would even beat her mercilessly if she didn’t compliment her. Tabitha wanted to tell her father, but she didn’t want to upset him.

On October 8th, Mariah kept smacking her because she ‘ate too many calories ' that day. She only stopped when Tabitha told her that she saw a grey hair coming out of her so-called beauty mark on her nose. The vain woman automatically ran into a bathroom without another word. Tabitha was watching the cartoon in the theater. When she heard Peter’s words, she suddenly saw red. She walked into the laundry room and grabbed the jug of bleach, then walked into the kitchen and got dishwashing gloves and a knife. She then snuck into the bathroom, where Mariah was, and while her stepmother was preoccupied with looking for a grey hair, Tabitha splashed bleach in her face.

Mariah screeched in agony and terror. She was blinded by the chemical liquid. Her face felt like it was on fire, her skin falling off. Her throat was also burning, and she was choking and could barely breathe, for the chemical got into her mouth. She tried to run out of the bathroom, but two people grabbed her by the arms; it was the real Peter Pan and Sebastian. While Mariah was thrashing about, Tabitha stabbed her right in the heart, and she instantly died.

“Nice,” smiled Peter, “You’ll be an incredible lost girl!”

Tabitha grinned from ear to ear.

Then, Tink flew in and blew pixie dust on the body, making it levitate. Tabitha was in awe of Tink as they put her stepmother’s body in the walk-in freezer. Nobody knew anything was wrong until midnight. Once again, the police only got one thing from the scene: an odd golden substance.

After the second cartoon aired, parents were livid. Even church groups got involved this time. The parents said that it wasn't at all appropriate for children, and the church groups said that the cartoons were sacrilegious, but their protests and rants were disregarded. The kids were hooked. More cartoons were made, and Twisted Wednesday rapidly became bigger and bigger. The fans of the cartoons even made up a name for the universe that the evil counterparts lived in: Disney Other World. To the fans, it was a hidden realm of Disney.

Meanwhile, the police departments finally saw a pattern. It was found out that the murdered parents had a history of abusing the kidnapped children. Detectives theorized it was the work of an ‘avenging angel,’ a person who acted as a vigilante, attacking or killing those they believed were evil or deserving of punishment. The suspect was murdering the abusers and taking the kids. They were half-right at least. Forensic scientists tested the gold substance and found that it had living cells. It wasn’t human, an animal, or a plant, but it was alive. They had never seen anything like it. If only they had looked at it from a child’s perspective, they would’ve seen that it was magic, and they in fact had seen it before.

As more cartoons were coming out, the number of murders and kidnappings kept rising, but the police never connected the cartoons to the savage crimes. The cases quickly became cold and were put in dusty boxes. This story should be a warning to parents: Love and accept your children, no matter what. Never torment them or lay a hand in anger on them. If you have no compassion towards your children, Peter Pan might pop up on your television screen, enticing them to escape and do the unthinkable. After all, to kill will be an awfully big adventure.

Disclaimer: The original Disney characters used in this story are owned and/or created by J.M. Barrie, Walt Disney, and the Walt Disney Company.

Author Notes: Just for the record, I love Disney! I loved Disney movies as a kid and still love them as an adult. I think that it's cool when Disney tries to go dark, and I just took it to the next level. I love warping things. This story is also a redo of a story that I never got to finish a couple of years ago. Have a spooky and fun time! Happy Halloween!!

Smooches and think Tink!