Location 059MV part 2

 I mentioned in another post that I might share snippets of the longer pieces from The Agency. Today's post is going to be an excerpt from "Location 059MV" since that one is quite long and one of my favorites that I've written. Enjoy your visit to Midnight Village. 

Location 059MV

Testimony 2001-07-06

Arch. Fuller: Statement of Blair Wells regarding his experience at Location 059MV, recorded direct from subject by Archivist Kris Fuller.

Wells: The Tunnel of Wishes is a boring ride, but I was bored and the lines for everything else were long since it was the Fourth of July so I decided to ride it. It would be good way to cool off and kill time while I waited for the lines to lighten up a bit. So I got in the boat with a family. I don’t know their names. It doesn’t matter, I guess. Everything was good. We went into the tunnel and listened to the animatronics with their stupid earworm “Small World” knockoff crap. The kid, he was about five, loved it.

            It was a normal, boring ride. I was sitting in the back, just waiting for the ride to be over. Then I started looking at the animatronics. I’d never paid much attention to them before. Really, I couldn’t believe they didn’t do better upkeep on them. The animatronics looked…weird. Creepy. Like, maybe it was just the lighting, but their skin looked gray and it looked like they had bags under their eyes, exhausted. Their eyes were also too wide. They all looked scared.

            Anyway, the ride ended and I got off. I noticed that the family with the kid that had been on the ride was kind of in a daze when they got off and wandered away from the ride. The kid wasn’t with them. I thought that was odd, but figured the kid was probably trying to hide on the boat to get another go around without having to get back in line. Whatever. Not my kid, not my problem.

            I went on a couple more rides, then decided to get a mooncake and call it a day. I got a mooncake, then went on the Tunnel of Wishes again to eat it and unwind. I ate my mooncake and went through the ride. While there, I noticed one animatronic that looked afraid, like they’d been crying, and an awful lot like the kid from earlier. That animatronic looked right at me and I swear it was the same kid. I swear it was looking at me and silently begging me to help. But then the ride was over and I went home.

            I saw the kid’s picture on the news later. He was missing and his parents were asking anyone with any information to come forward. They said the last time they saw him was when they were in line at Dragon Mountain, which is where they went after the Tunnel of Wishes. So, they were wrong about where they last saw him. I figured they thought that he was with them until then.

            The next day, I saw on the news that a body was found and the parents were grieving, thanking everyone for their support. The owner of the park paid for the funeral which I thought was kind of a nice thing. Anyway, that’s all there is to it. Some spooky animatronic that looked like the missing, now dead, kid.

Arch. Fuller: Statement ends. The owner of Location 059MV did indeed pay for the funeral and the accounts show that this family is receiving a stipend. The custodians have reported that they have seen the kid in question in the Tunnel of Wishes. It would seem he is part of the ride he loved so much.

Testimony 2002-12-29

Arch. Fuller: Statement of Bella Chapman regarding her experience in Location 059MV during Christmas of 2002, recorded direct from subject by Archivist Kris Fuller.

Chapman: It was supposed to be a fun vacation. Just me, my parents, and my little siblings. Besides, Midnight Village looks amazing when it’s decorated for Christmas. The lights, the snow, the lanterns in Lunafair. Midnight Village at Christmas was a family tradition. Used to it, it would be me and my parents—Christine and Jack, but then they had my little siblings—Jessica and Valerie—and I was a little bitter. This was our thing, and I didn’t like sharing this with two spoiled brats. It was awful, visiting there with them as babies. It got even worse as they got older. Constantly having to do things they wanted to do, not having my parents to ride with me on the things I wanted to go on. Couldn’t even get close to Terror Land anymore because of them.

            We were on our way over to the Tunnel of Wishes for the fifth time that day when I saw the figure. I’m used to seeing the bunny girls who hand out mooncakes. They aren’t very dressed up, just cute clothes and rabbit ears. I’m also used to seeing the dragon dancers sometimes. This person, who I saw at a distance, seemed to be wearing a suit like a mascot. Like an Easter Bunny suit. Even at a distance, I could tell something was really off about it. I think…it looked grimy, even from how far away we were. Then I lost sight of him when a crowd passed in front of us. My family didn’t see him, I don’t think, because my parents told me to keep up and the kids started whining that I was taking too long.

            When we got on the boat for the Tunnel of Wishes, I saw the figure again, but still not very close by. Throughout the ride, I was unnerved and jumpy. I can’t explain it, but there was something about him that made me uneasy. While we were on the ride, I saw one of the animatronics that looked like that kid that disappeared a year ago. I thought it was kinda nice that the park added an animatronic to the ride in honor of him.

            It was a boring ride, then we got off and started making our way to the carousel. I still felt uneasy, like I was being watched. We got to the Zodiac and my parents made me ride it with the kids. I couldn’t find a spot near them so I took the first open spot, a horse on the other side. They were on a pair of tigers. The carousel started up and I still felt uneasy. I looked around and I saw the guy in the bunny suit watching the kids as the carousel was in motion. Every time I came back around to see him, he looked closer. I knew that as soon as the ride stopped, I would need to rush over to the kids and keep them away from him. I didn’t want to risk him doing something to them and then my parents deciding that we couldn’t come to Midnight Village anymore. I wasn’t going to let them ruin my family tradition.

            The carousel stopped and I ran to where they should have been. There’s only two tigers and they had been right there when the ride was going. They couldn’t have gotten off, I would have seen them. But they weren’t there. I scanned the crowd and I didn’t see them or the bunny figure. I ran over to my parents and told them I couldn’t find Jessica and Valerie or the bunny man. They looked at each other and told me to calm down and stop making a scene. They told me quietly that Jessica and Valerie weren’t real, they were imaginary friends that I’ve had for years, and this was the first time they’ve heard me talk about a bunny man. I mean, that last bit is true because I’ve never seen that bunny figure before or since. Well, I saw him once more as we were leaving the park.

            I wouldn’t calm down so my parents decided we were leaving for the day. I threw a tantrum. I must have looked a little crazy to anyone who saw me. As we were leaving, I saw the bunny man again. His suit was dingy gray and splattered with blood. He was standing over there, covered in fresh blood, and holding Valerie’s hand. She was crying and covered in blood. That thing was waving at me and grinning. I tried to get my parents to look and they looked, but they just…they looked right at it, but didn’t see it. They told me there was nothing there. I looked at the thing and it just turned and started walking toward the Star Bridge, half-dragging Valerie. The crowd just kind of parted around him, like he was a lamp post or a trash can or something. Like he was just part of the scenery. I don’t even think they saw him.

            My parents are making me talk to a therapist. I keep telling my therapist that I had sisters. I even showed her the pictures on my phone of my sisters and I that I took that day at the park. Or at least, I tried to show her the pictures. When I opened up my gallery, the photos were all either gone or just showed me and my parents. I…I’m not crazy. I had two sisters, Valerie and Jessica, and they went to Midnight Village with me and my parents on Christmas and they vanished after they rode the carousel. We were stalked by someone wearing a dingy bunny suit and he took Valerie, probably killed Jessica. Please, I’m not crazy.

Arch. Fuller: Statement ends. Ms. Chapman’s parents have denied that they had any other children aside from Ms. Chapman; however, given the history of Location 059MV, it is very likely that they did in fact have two other children and do not recall this due to the nature of Location 059MV. So, Location 059MV is home to the executioner and the bunny man. Possibly also disembodied voices of children laughing, if Mr. Griffith’s statement in 1999 is to be believed. Are these entities all working together or just sharing the location? It is too soon to tell and we do not have enough information. Perhaps it might be prudent to have another interview with Mr. Shaw to see if he’s as useful as Superior Read suspects he’ll be.

Arch. Fuller: As of today, December thirty-first, Ms. Chapman has retracted her statement. At Superior Read’s discretion, her previous statement will remain in the box with the other statements from Location 059MV. It is for the best as the retraction of her statement came after the tuition to her private school was paid in full for the remainder of her time there and a savings account in her name was opened up with a substantial sum. Checking her parents’ accounts has also confirmed they received a rather hefty amount from an anonymous source.

Testimony 2003-04-09

Arch. Fuller: Statement of Naomi Parker who was witness to the death of Peter Stewart in Location 059MV, recorded direct from subject by Archivist Kris Fuller.

Parker: I thought it was just a part of the ride, something new they’d added. Anyway, I was riding through Punishment Manor in one of those little carts. I’d been on it before, yeah, but this was my first ride on it this year. It was all kind of the same, really. Standard haunted mansion routine. Floating books, waving curtains, eerie laughter and screams, rattling chains, howls, all that. We entered the outdoor graveyard portion and I saw the gallows. The executioner animatronic was there along with the animatronic victims and a new one—well, I guess that would be Peter Stewart, wouldn’t it. All were screaming and pleading, but Peter’s voice sounded more real than theirs. I thought Midnight Village had gotten a new animatronic and was testing it out. The executioner pulled the lever, the floor dropped out from below them, and they dropped. The other animatronics’ screams cut off, but Peter kept swinging, kicking his feet, gagging, and gasping. I thought it was just something new added to the ride.

            After the ride, I went to the ride operator to mention I was impressed with the quality of the newest animatronic. A mother was already there yelling at him about the animatronic because “it was so lifelike it’ll give my precious angels nightmares.” I told her that she shouldn’t even have kids that young on a ride like this. We started fighting and I didn’t really pay attention to the operator, but I suppose he called security and emergency stopped the ride. Next thing I know after she and I are separated, security goes in there, and one of the guards comes out to tell the operator to call the owner. Security escorted her and me away from the area because we were still fighting.

            I saw on the news later that the man had been identified as Peter Stewart and his death was ruled a suicide. But…he was pleading to be helped, to be freed, and the animatronic executioner pulled the lever anyway. I mean, I get it, it couldn’t be stopped when that’s what it was programed to do, but something seemed off about that. If it were a suicide, why did he plead like that? Okay, I suppose to make everyone think he was an animatronic, but he was also bruised like he’d been beaten first. It just seems strange to me.

Arch. Fuller: Statement ends. Superior Read has informed me that he will be arranging an interview with Luca Shaw again sometime this month that will hopefully shed more light on what occurred with Peter Stewart as well as what happened to the Chapman twins.

And that's the end of that excerpt. In my July 8th post, you'll have another excerpt from "Location 059MV" and get to see more of the strange and unusual events surrounding it. After all, the water park portion of the park hasn't even opened.