Splash Mountain

I think it's safe to say most Americans have either been to Disneyland or Disney World. I have been to Disney World in Orlando twice now. The first time I went, I was ten years old. Me and my family just returned from our second trip as a family ten years later. We went during February so it was relatively quiet in all the parks. We did go to all four parks. We started with the Hollywood Studios, then Epcot, then the Animal Kingdom, and then finally the Magic Kingdom. I had a great time, until I went on Splash Mountain.
Splash Mountain is one of the more popular rides at Disney World and I remember it being my favorite ten years ago. Since we left all the other parks relatively early, we decided to stay at the Magic Kingdom until midnight. After the nightly fireworks, the park started to really quiet down, basically to the point that the park was dead. We got on a few attractions with no lines. My little brother who was thirteen was really getting into the spirit. He was wearing mouse ears and a bright green Micky Mouse shirt. Me and my older brother teased him about it throughout the day. Somehow we were so busy that it wasn't until around eleven thirty at night that I remembered that we hadn't even gone on Splash Mountain. I reminded my family but my parents reminded me that the ride closes at eleven.
Since we were already in the Frontier Land, which is the section of the park that Splash Mountain was in, I convinced my family to check anyway. I walked ahead of my family to try and save time. When I arrived to the Splash Mountain area, there wasn't a soul in sight other than the guy manning the entrance. He informed me that the ride closes when the park closes. I had a feeling I was right, but I suddenly felt the urge to pee so I called out to my family who was still approaching the entrance to wait while I ran to the bathroom. Conveniently there was one right next the entrance. I'll spare you the details, but after I returned to the entrance of the ride, my family was gone. I called for them, walking around cluelessly, but there wasn't even a response. I turned back to the entrance to ask the worker who was standing there if he saw where they went, but he was gone too. I was about to take out my phone and call them when suddenly I heard the sound of my two brothers laughing from down the entrance of the ride.
"What the hell are they doing?", I thought. "They're not planning on going on the ride without me, are they?"
I ran down the cave-like entrance of the ride but the sounds of my brother's laughing didn't seem to get any closer. I called out for my parents and for my brothers, but they didn't respond. How could they not hear me?
I made it to the room where you board the log boats, but there were no employees anywhere in sight. But what I did see was one of the boats leaving the boarding room and I could see my little brother in his green shirt and mouse ears sitting in the back seat of one of them. He was next to somebody else, probably my older brother. I screamed their names in anger but they didn't hear me. I couldn't understand why they would go on the ride without me. Another boat was about to leave the room so I hopped onto it since there were no employees to tell me otherwise. I was on the next boat behind my family. As I slowly road out of the room and eventually outside, I couldn't see my family ahead of me. I didn't make sense. I wasn't too far behind them to start with. How fast could their boat be going?
I sat with mixed emotions, mostly confusion and anger, as the ride slowly progressed, until I finally entered the cave with all those singing robots. I guess where the ride actually begins. This is where things began to get strange. Well, stranger.
The first things I was greeted by were a bunch of giant singing birds. I remembered these things from ten years ago. As they sang their song, their heads slowly turned to constantly face the boat, and their eyes...all their eyes seemed to lock onto mine. I didn't remember them doing this last time. It was very unsettling seeing those things looking at me as if they were actually aware of my presence. I obviously assumed it was just some updated technology to add to the atmosphere of the ride. After all, it was Disney.
Sitting all alone on this ride, I felt uncomfortable. I know it's a Disney ride, but you wouldn't understand. Being on a dark and slow ride all alone at this time at night, with seemingly nobody around, it gives a very unsettling feeling. After the birds I slowly approached Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear who were seemingly plotting to capture Br'er Rabbit. See, if you know anything about this ride, you would know that you're entertained throughout by animatronics versions of the characters from the movie Song of the South, specifically a hungry fox and his dimwitted henchman bear who constantly make goofy attempts to capture a rabbit for a quick snack. Anyway, back to the ride. Normally, Br'er Bear would be carrying around a big wooden club, but this animatronic...he was holding an ax. And instead of his normally goofy appearance, he had a more intimidating look that was definitely not child-friendly, and standing on his shoulders was Br'er Fox, only a much more evil and scary version. He had much sharper teeth and instead of his kid-friendly evil smile, it was a much more disturbing face, a clearly unhappy and resentful face. Upon getting closer, I could see that the fox had a large knife in his hand. The two animatronics began speaking, or at least the ride audio provided the sounds of their characters speaking, but the voices were also off. The voice of the bear was so muffled and distorted that it was incomprehensible and the voice of the fox, it almost sounded demonic. The background music was too loud for me to make out anything being said though.
My boat passed the two characters, only to approach something equally unsettling. There was Br'er Rabbit, but instead of singing like I remembered he did, he was just sitting on top of a broken mailbox. Instead of his normally happy face, he had on a depressed face with bloodshot eyes and a red stain on his pink shirt, presumably blood. This wasn't right. Disney wouldn't do something like this. I didn't want to be on that ride anymore. I shouted out for my family in hopes that they might hear me but there was no response.
The song switched to the "Laughing Place" song but it sounded different. It didn't have that cheerful feel to it. At this point, every single animatronic character on sight was making direct eye contact with me. They were not cheerful, kid-friendly faces though. They were angry, hateful faces.
This has to be a joke, I thought. I must be going crazy or something. They wouldn't do something like this. Not at a kids park. The next time that I saw the main characters, it was even worse. Br'er Fox was waving his arm in anger and yelling something incomprehensible at Br'er Bear, whose ax was now covered in blood. The first thought that came up was, who's or what's blood? Then I saw that Br'er Fox was actually waving something in his hand. It was a dismembered arm. The arm of Br'er Rabbit. In front of the two robots was a blood trail. A blood trail that looked too real. It all looked too real. I could see fake blood dripping out of the prop that the fox was holding. It has to be fake blood, I thought to myself.
Before exiting the section of the ride, there was one more disturbing scene: Br'er Rabbit limping across the field with a trail of blood following him.
It didn't make sense. The blood actually dripped on the floor only appearing behind him. How could that be unless someone cleans up the blood every time a boat passes by? But by this time, it was pointless to try and rationalize any of this. All I wanted was to get off this ride and see my family's reaction.
After this, finally came the most anticipated part of the ride which was the big drop. The boat climbed up to an angle and began to climb up the hill. At this point anybody would be excited but I wasn't thinking about it. I was so focused on what I had just seen on a Disney ride.
As I neared the top of the hill, there was one more scene waiting at the side. From what I remembered ten years ago, it was Br'er Rabbit tied to pole over a fire begging to be let go by Br'er Fox, but this time: it was the most disturbing thing I had ever seen in my life. Br'er Rabbit was still seen tied to a pole over a fire but Br'er Bear was also there this time with Br'er Fox standing right beside him. The bear raised his ax high in the air and with one swift in almost too realistic motion, he swung the ax straight through Br'er Rabbit's neck, slicing his head clean off. Fake blood sprayed out from the thing as the head fell to the floor. The red liquid even sprayed out to my face, and that's when I smelt it. The metallic smell that blood gives off. It was real blood. I started to gag in disgust and shock, ready to throw up.
The head hit the ground with a loud thud and then rolled into the water. Suddenly all the lights in the ride went out and all the background noises stopped and it was pitch dark inside. All I could see was the hint of moonlight coming from the top of the hill, and then coming from behind me, even over the sounds of the rails pulling the boat up the hill and the water moving down the hill, I could hear the sound of heavy splashing coming from the bottom, the kind of splashing you would hear from somebody running thought water. I turned around to see nothing but darkness behind me, but the splashing was getting louder, and just as a reached the top of the lift hill, I could see a giant humanoid figure probably eight feet tall begin to run up the lift hill. As it ran closer, it stretched out its long arms, seemingly ready to pull me out of this boat. The shock of it all prevented me from being able to note any of its features before dropping down to the bottom of the hill outside.
What did I just see? I must be going crazy. What the fuck was that? I thought it was all a dream. I pinched myself. I even slapped myself in the face a few times, but it was real.
Whatever, I was outside now. This was my chance to get off this nuthouse ride. I looked for any place to climb over the fake rock walls but all of the walls were covered by big spikes. They weren't even just decorative props. These things looked dangerously sharp. Hell, they looked deadly. And they covered every single imaginable place to climb out. It was like I was really in a giant briar patch. It was like these spikes were put here to prevent anybody from escaping the ride. I pulled out my phone and turned on its flashlight to see if it was safe to even hop out of the boat. I shined the flashlight down into the water, revealing even more spikes under the water. There was no way out at all. I screamed at the top of my lungs for help but there was nobody around. It was pointless.
I continued to constantly glance over my shoulder to make sure that that thing that I saw wasn't behind me, and with that I slowly road back into the caves of the ride where I was greeted by the "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Da" song, only it was a much slower and depressing version. The first thing I was greeted by after riding into the cave was a big sign hanging over my head reading "Rest In Peace, Br'er Rabbit" and to the right were countless animatronics animals ranging from frogs to chickens to ducks, all dressed in black, apparently mourning at the death of Br'er Rabbit.
Suddenly, the boat came to a sudden stop and all the background music stopped along with the motors and the water flow, leaving nothing but utter silence. I focused my attention to the dozens of animatronics characters who were now all frozen, apparently turned off. I turned away, scanning the room for any actual living beings or some kind of exit. I again resorted to shouting for help but of course it did no good. Just as I was ready to give up trying to escape the ride, my luck finally seemed to changed as I saw the glowing red text of an exit sign slightly hidden behind a big rock. That was my way out. There were no spikes in here.
I took one more glance over my shoulder to make sure nothing was behind me but that's when I saw something in my peripheral vision. I didn't want to look, but I forced myself to turn around and see that the dozens of mourning animatronic animals have all turned their heads to face me. But whatever was doing this didn't allow me to witness this for more than a few seconds because the lights went out inside the cave once again leaving me in complete darkness and silence. Even though it was rather cold inside, I felt myself starting to sweat and I could feel my heart punching the inside of my chest. Then the sound of heavy footsteps coming from the platform broke the silence.
I found myself hugging the edge of the boat, too scared to even think about getting out of the boat. The footsteps stopped right at the edge of the platform and then the boat started to rock back and forth. Something got into the boat. I leaned against the wall in shock and horror, still as a statue. The thought of something grabbing my foot the second I try to hop out of the boat haunted my mind, paralyzing me in that position. I stayed still like this not even moving my arm to itch for what felt like ten minutes. My eyes were somewhat adjusting to the dark but I refused to turn my head to see what was behind me.
Just as soon as I began to think I should make a dash for it, I felt something grab my right shoulder. I didn't even dare to look at the hand that was grabbing me. I immediately jumped out of the boat and ran onto the platform. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight helping me find my way through the props to the exit door. The door lead to a long hallway where I eventually found the backdoor leading to the outside of the ride.
I was safe. I made it out alive. I immediately dialed my mom's phone number and she answered within seconds as if she was waiting for me to call. I asked her if she was alright and she said she was fine. I screamed into the phone to meet me by the exit of the park right away. She sounded confused and asked me where I was but I hung up the phone and ran to the exit of the Magic Kingdom, planning to never return again.
Since this experience, my parents have been sending me to many psychiatrists and seeking as much therapeutic help as possible, but I'm still convinced that I hadn't imagined it. It was too real. My advice to you: never ride something like this alone during a very slow day late at night. I don't know how or why they would do this. I don't know if Disney is hiding something. I still think of the creature I caught a glimpse of and whatever the thing was that was in the boat with me. I sometimes wish I had turned around to see what had grabbed my shoulder just to kill the curiosity that I know will never go away, but maybe I should be happy I didn't turn around.
Possibly the strangest thing about all of this though, when I met up with my family at the exit of the park and tried and get some reactions from them, they told me that after I went to the bathroom, they simply walked around waiting for me.
They never got on the ride.