Author's Note: Now, this is, basically, my fan-made parody of one of my favorite CreepyPasta characters, BEN Drowned, so please do not -- I repeat -- do NOT copy off this story. If you do, then you are gonna be blocked by administrators. Also, this story is just a jab at the clichés some stories tend to have, so please, don't take it seriously! XD
If you did enjoy this Pasta, please feel free to make animations, or pictures on DeviantArt or ArtStation. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
Enjoy the story!
JOHNNY Burned by TheDarkCat97[]
Sometimes, I generally question the motives of certain people, and the reason why they do the things that they do.
I've already lost my faith in humanity a long time ago, but I think that after seeing the contents that I've seen, and the lack of responses that I had gotten from the man who sold it to me, my feelings for mankind had pretty much shot it's own head off with a shotgun. I do apologize if this may seem a bit confusing for some of you out there, so I guess the best thing for me to do is to just shut up and tell my story.
This all started up around five or six weeks back, I was at my house trying desperately to pay for my electric bill. This was all because I constantly watch YouTube videos of episodes from French TV shows like Kaeloo, and my personal favorite, Wakfu.
Now, there's something quite breathtaking about viewing an Ankama Animation production. Gorgeous worlds, memorable characters, epic scores, and fantastic writing have helped to showcase them as the French equivalent to Studio Ghibli. For nearly a decade, their work on the Wakfu series (based on their popular massive multiplayer online game) has brought seas of fans, helping to place France as a top dog in the animation quality department. Finally, after honing their craft in the television realm, Ankama has taken over the big screen in the first of three films based on their first MMO title Dofus.
Dofus - Book 1: Julith takes us roughly a thousand years before Yugo and the rest of the Brotherhood of the Tofu even existed. In the land of Bonta, a war broke out between their citizens and the people of Brakmar. Their leaders -- Jahash Jurgen and Julith (voiced by Laetitia Lefebvre) -- fight tooth-and-nail against one another, only to fall in love and reach a peaceful resolution. However, Julith betrays Jahash, sending both to fight one more time to the death. Ten years later, Julith returns, stealing the Ebony Dofus dragon egg in the hopes to finish what she started.
Enter Joris (voiced by Sauvane Delanoë), an orphaned Huppermage who is being watched over by the elder Kerub (voiced by Jean-Claude Donda). He spends his time emulating Gobbowl champion Khan Karkass (voiced by Emmanuel Gradi), much to the dismay of his Ouginak girlfriend Liotte (voiced by Claire Baradat). However, on the day he somehow impresses his hero, Joris meets Jahash's sister Bakara (voiced by Elisabeth Ventura), and soon finds himself in the middle of a battle that not only places the fate of Bonta on his shoulders, but also reveals the truth behind his family.
What I appreciate most about Ankama Animation and their head writer Tot is their ability to balance light-hearted fare with some truly dark elements. Humor-wise, there's plenty of laugh-out-loud moments the first Dofus movie dishes out, be it watching Joris take on a bunch of Gobbowl tryouts with his speed and quick reflexes, to some of the jabs Bakara dishes out to the heartthrob Khan. (A visualization of his heart being smitten by Bakara is perhaps one of the best gags you'll see this year in animation.) However, the film knows when to act mature, especially when dealing with a character's death and the emotional turmoil of finding out who Joris's true parents are.
It's when the heat of battle occurs when Dofus - Book 1: Julith really shines. Watching as the heroes take on Kerub's corrupt brother Atcham (voiced by Bernard Alane) presents the viewers the chance to see the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. When Joris lets the literal beast within him take over, a level of badassery is unleashed that brings to mind the Season Two finale of Wakfu. A young kid giving his all in a fight, pushing himself towards victory upon an opponent who underestimated his abilities, ending with a sweet final blow and some destruction amongst his surroundings. (Considering his nickname is JoJo, the power Joris contains shouldn't be too surprising.)
I am constantly in awe of the fact that Ankama Animation uses Flash to bring their stories to life, as the beauty it presents can sometimes be on the same levels as a Mamoru Hosoda movie. Blending both Western and Eastern visuals, the Roubaix-based production company brings forth some of the most gorgeous 2D-styled worlds that breathe a very immersive essence. The attention to detail in the characters is also impressive, especially when seeing either Khan or Bakara take a slight dose of pain in a temple trap. (However, in regards to Khan's design, why so much bulge?)
The level of quality in the French voice acting is up there with some of anime's finest. Delanoë's Joris captures the spirit of the wide-eyed kid with an unexpected weight on his shoulders, with Baradat's Liotte acting as the heartfelt peppy BFF with a good dose of spunk. Lefebvre delivers the right amount of sympathetic evil in her role as the antagonist Julith, while Ventura's Bakara winds up being one of the funniest parts of the movie thanks to her one-liners and attitude. Always stealing the spotlight in each scene, Gradi's Khan is pure Lust For Life-era Iggy Pop coolness with a Jack LaLanne style of finesse and mentality.
To paraphrase Khan, Dofus - Book 1: Julith never goes below awesome. With its beautiful animation, brilliant writing, and some of this year's most memorable characters, Ankama's first official foray into the movie industry is a winner in every way, shape, and form. If this is what Ankama planned for the first Dofus film, imagine what'll be on the horizon for Book 2.
The concept of using Steam as an animation distribution platform will take time to establish but it holds great promise, opening up the platform’s pop culture-savvy user base of over 125 million people to animated films that would otherwise not find wide distribution in the U.S.
Dofus is not the first animated feature to be released on Steam. Game maker Valve, which owns Steams, started making films available on the platform in 2015, and while the majority of those titles have been live-action to date, that has been changing recently, with some anime titles added, as well as the 2012 Korean CG feature Padak. Now, I have seen the full movie on YouTube (yes, it's on YouTube), and I wanted to buy it on DVD. So, I went to my nearby flea market to buy the film, knowing that whenever you go into flea markets, you'd see some unique stuff that you never thought existed.
I first saw the DVD on a shelf in the movie section, and saw that the stand was owned by a guy who looked like someone in a punk rock concert. His name was Joseph, and he claimed to be an enthusiast in everything heavy metal. But, he also said that he was just there to sell a bunch of "old junk" so he can get a lot of money to buy, himself, tickets to the next Slipknot concert. I eyed the DVD case and said that I wanted to buy the Dofus movie that has the white tape with the writing written in black marker that reads, $10.00. I gave the money to Joseph, and I asked him if I can go with him to the concert when he gets the money. In which, he says yes, and he written down the phone number (I can't give out what was written due to some reasons that are... well, reasonable).
Here's where things got fucked up. Jesus H. Christ, I don't think I'm able to comprehend what I just saw throughout the entire week after I bought the damn thing.
I spent the entire day at home looking up some YouTube videos on my laptop until my college friend, Fredrick, came over for movie night with some drinks and snacks from the local Seven-Eleven. He, alongside Sam, Zachary, and Thomas, sat in front of my flat screen TV -- that was mounted on the wall -- on the couch, and he handed out everything that the friends bought at store:
- Fredrick bought a couple of beers and a can of onion and sour cream flavored Pringles.
- Sam bought some chocolate milk and some Dibs (basically small ice cream bits covered in chocolate).
- Zachary bought some small pizzas and a can of Monster energy drink.
- And Thomas bought a hot dog and a plastic bottle of Coca-Cola.
I opened the DVD case, only to see that what's inside, wasn't what I was expecting. What was inside, was a DVD-ROM -- one that you'd normally use to download home videos, or edited videos on.
Well dammit, I bought a BETA disc! BETA discs were neat and all, but I was expecting to buy the actual movie, itself, which was the problem for me. I rolled my eyes and let out a brief, "Son of a bitch", and let everyone know that I might've got swindled out of my money. Can you believe that shit?
Anyway, I looked at the DVD-ROM, and saw that it was written in black sharpie, and it just said, "DOFUS".
Nothing special, nothing like "Dofus Book" whatever... Just the word "DOFUS" in all capital letters.
What was weird was that it was written in the same handwriting as Joseph's back at the flea market, I squinted my eyes and asked myself if he was the one who made this. Now, I know this is gonna sound cliché and all, but I placed the DVD-ROM in my laptop instead of the flat screen due to it only working in computers and shit. We did pause the TV and turned up the volume on my laptop, and we hit play. The film started, but we had to go to settings to click on English translation because the voice actors in the movie are speaking in their native French language. As the film went on, we began to see how wonderful the film was, until it got to the part where Julith goes to Atcham to hunt down Joris after killing Kerub.
As Atcham says that he "would've enjoyed shearing the big hairy idiot himself", we both noticed that there was a faint set of white text next to the Ecaflip that stayed on-screen for four seconds. We went back and paused on it, and it read, "Honestly, what are you hoping for?"
I recognized that, that quote was said by a young Ush Galesh from Wakfu - Book ll: Ush.
The movie went further down 'till we can see another set of text when Atcham appeared again riding on one of those bat-cat-whatever the hell it's called, that read, "My Patience has limits, little justiciary!"
That was said by Atcham, himself, in one of those comic strips on Fireden.net (I don't know if the comic, itself, was fan-made or not).
Screenshot of the scene of the BETA film.
When it got to the part where Joris confronts Atcham, the scene began to become more of an animation test screening -- like whoever made this movie forgot to finish the scene. The movie skipped two times before it suddenly cuts to black. We thought it was the laptop at first, but we figured out that this was part of the movie, because as the scene skipped, the bar continued on forward as the movie progressed. When it got to the part when the main cast survived their fall after Joris' violent battle with Atcham, the movie still went on until the scene cuts to Atcham, who -- in the original movie -- was stuck under the debris. But, in the BETA disc... Oh, boy, where do I begin.
It cuts to a still photo of Atcham under the debris with blood (taken from Photo Shop) underneath him, like the carnage had crushed him to death, squashed like a splattered bug.
After what felt like forever, the scene cuts to black for three seconds until another set of white text faded in from the darkness.
"The past is a ghost, the future a dream. And all we have is now."
After that, it cuts to a different scene. This was not from the movie, but from an animation from what looked like "New Grounds" of a couple of people tying someone who looks to be seventeen-years-old in a wooden chair outside. The kid had black short hair, pale skin, and wore an Avengers T-shirt and blue jeans. He tries to struggle, gagged and obviously begging for mercy, only to be punched in the jaw. We both looked at each other with a look that completely says, What the fuck. The video continued, and I suddenly recognized the cameraman's voice... it was Joseph! He was voicing the cameraman as he's telling the man who punched the teen to hold the camera, and that he's gonna get something from the trunk. He came back and it was revealed that he grabbed a gasoline tank, and began pouring it all over the victim of ridicule.
Then, as the cameraman lit one, single match, the scene cuts to black once again, and cuts back to the movie.
The movie continues normally, where they enter a cavern where they unlock the Dardondakal from what it's revealed to be a Dofus. But, as Atcham sees himself with brown fur and smiles at what I assume was at the viewer, another set of text appeared across the screen. But this time, it was red and in all capital letters. I paused it for all of us to read.
"SET ME FREE..."
Suddenly, the scene starting skipping again, and it cuts back to the New Grounds animation. Only this time, it showed the pair driving down the road in their van, not daring to say a word. We both decided to cut the movie off and call it a night, I guess it was due to either the creep factor, or it got really, really boring.
The second night, I chalked the weirdness up to just some attempt to make a parody of the actual film. Much like those YouTube Poop videos you'd normally see online, it had objects or pictures made from Photo Shop and fan-made animations from New Grounds. But, what would catch me off guard was the premise of the animations and the odd text it would present me with, it all seemed to point to somewhat... of a criminal felony. Now, I'm a fan of law enforcement, so stuff like this has me critiquing the thing, like "What was the motive of all of this?" and "Weren't they supposed to cover their tracks?".
Earlier in the day, me and Zachary had been walking a few miles through the woods on a hiking trail, and we thought we heard the sound of twigs cracking under something heavy. We hoped it wasn't a bear, because we wouldn't get very far, but something changed when we noticed something pinned to a tree nearby. It was a piece of paper with numbers written on it.
7-5-7-2-9-3-7-5-1-4
It was a phone number. The distinct seven-five-seven number let's us know that this was out of the ordinary. It looked like either someone wanted to be known, or someone had stolen the phone number after breaking an entry, and wanted to cover their tracks, but did it very, very sloppily. We took it, and went back to my car, and went to my house to call whoever has this phone number. I punched in the correct numbers, and waited on the phone as it rung. The person who answered, was a man by the name of Harold Flint, a father of two... or, used to until one of his kids, Johnny, went missing a few weeks back. I asked him what happened and he says that he didn't know, but police are still searching for him, but always came up with nothing.
Zachary heard this due to the phone being on speaker, and asked what the missing kid looked like, and Harold said that he has short, black hair, pale skin, and the last time he saw him, was when he wore an Avengers shirt with blue jeans. We gasped at what we heard, and looked at each other with widening eyes. Our faces grew whiter than fucking Christmas as we heard Harold's story.
After the call, we knew right then and there that something was wrong, we got on our laptop and looked back at the animation where the cameraman poured gasoline on the teen that fits the description of Harold's son, Johnny. We shook out heads in disbelief, I mean, what the hell is going on?
The third night is where things went to hell and I still don't fully understand what happened.
I must've waited at least a half hour, staring into nothing. There was barely any sound, save for the faint chirping of crickets and cars passing by my neighborhood. I played the movie and continued to view whatever evidence the film has to show me, helping me figure out whatever happened to the character I assume is Johnny. After Joris stops Bakara Jurgen from killing him, Atcham has a change of heart and starts considering him and Kerub as family. Soon after, he dies shielding Joris from the flames, seeming happy to finally feel like he belongs to a family. Suddenly, as Atcham stood there with the flames on his back and staggers, I saw the same white text from before, in big, bold letters. It was Johnny's name. I paused it right there, and gazed at the screen. I didn't know what it meant at first, I paced around the room, I sat down on the kitchen table and sipped my cup of coffee. I tried so desperately to figure out what this clue meant, oh, so thoroughly, so figuratively, until I looked at the shot of Atcham on fire, and Johnny's name on screen.
Right there and then, after seeing the familiar character being drenched in gasoline, and Atcham being set on fire... I finally found out what happened. It was all there, black and white, clear as crystal.
As I suspected, Johnny was dead. He had been burned alive. The movie obviously isn't through with me - it taunts me with the Photo Shopped images - it wants me to keep watching, it wants me to go further, but I'm done with this shit. I'm not watching any more of the film. This is already way too horrifying for me and I don't even believe in the paranormal, but I'm running out of explanations. Why would someone send me this message? I don't understand it, I just get too depressed thinking about this, the image is up here for those who want to see it and try and analyze it (maybe there's some kind of coded message in the text or something symbolic in what I went through - I'm too emotionally and mentally drained to fuck with it anymore).
Upon Julith's machine being destroyed at the end of the movie, Joris is temporarily relieved of his role as a host of Grougalorasalaar (the dragon embryo of the Ebony Dofus that fled into his body when it shattered), but takes it on again when he sees that Grougalorasalaar needs to be cared for. The dragon seems to emerge when Joris is upset or the Ebony Dofus is nearby, so, that kind of counts for something, right? But, I digress.
With the film ending, it suddenly cuts to the New Grounds animation again, only this time, it just made my jaw drop all the way to fucking China. It showed Joseph in animation style editing a copy of Dofus - Book 1: Julith on his computer -- just like what everyone does on YouTube, burning it onto a DVD-ROM, and writing the words, "DOFUS", on the thing with black sharpie. And as the character closes the door and drives off in his car, the animation fades to black.
Even though I don't even know you think this is sort of bittersweet for me, since I did find out what happened to the man's son, but, I'm sort of in a loss for words at this point. I mean, is this Joseph's way of confessing to a murder, is this some sort of sick and demented way of poking fun at a man's agony of loosing his son?
Is this Johnny showing me what actually happened?
I know this sounds stupid, but, like I said I'm running out of explanations. I can't be the only one who knows this, right? Zachary was there, he definitely knows this, so yeah, he's with me a hundred percent. I don't know about Fredrick, Sammy and Thomas, but once I show them all the evidence and the videos, they'll know soon enough. It won't be easy, though, but it's all worth it.
Lately, Zachary suffered from a hernia in his abdomen area, so he had to be rushed to the hospital. As for Fredrick, Sammy and Thomas, they're alright, just worried about Zachary. Zachary told them about Johnny, and that they should watch the film to find out what happened to him. They are hesitant, not knowing what to expect from that. But, after some minimum conversations about it, they said that they'll find out tomorrow, because they were planning on celebrating Sammy's birthday at a Chinese buffet.
I still have the DVD-ROM in my possession and I'm planning on showing it to them tomorrow. No, I didn't think about getting the police involved, they'll probably see it as immature to think that a cartoon movie is edited by what is assumed to be a murderer. I don't know if this was just a coincidence, or just supernatural, but... I just don't know, there have been many stories and rumors about haunted DVDs and VHS tapes on the internet, but, that's just it, stories and rumors. They're not real... right?
All I ever wanted was to watch one of my favorite French animated movies, I never thought that I was gonna buy an edited version that told me that actual foul play was at work. And... And I never thought that whoever sold it to me had literally committed a murder, and edited this thing, either to confess to whoever's watching this, or to brag about it to his little fuck buddies.
The only question I have to ask is... Why?
Why did Joseph do this, why was this even edited to begin with, why was the evidence shown whenever Atcham is shown on-screen, and why did I even bought the damn thing to begin with? Just why? That's all I'm asking to whoever can answer me now, just why?
I'm sorry if I'm being condescending right now, it's all just... too much for me to handle right now.
Reviewing the movie twice will be harder, and harder on me than it'll be on those three, and it gave me horrible nightmares about Johnny, I'm sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but it's true - it's all true.
As I stated before, I generally question the motives of certain people, and the reason why they do the things that they do. And that's all the things you need to know before I end my story. It's that type of dichotomy that really makes you ask why, why is this happening to me, and why is it that every single time I go on with my business, something has to happen. Just remember that, it's for the best not to question it. Sometimes you have to just leave it to the professionals or let your boss handle the situation. I'm not saying that you don't need to stand up for yourself, just worry about yourself and everything will be fine.
There's an old saying, The squeaky wheel gets the grease. But, in this case, I'm just gonna replace that tire with a new one, just because I'm smart enough to go to an auto repair shop and change my tires.
Anyway, I hope you learned a little something from my experience. And Joseph, if you're reading this, I got three words to say to you...
Go. Fuck. Yourself.