A bad day for James

NOTE: this is a retake of "james' bad day"
When I was around 11, I had a habit of waking up earlier than usual and watching whatever was on the tv at that time, usually on school days and around the times of either 4:00 and 5:00. While it wasn’t exactly the healthiest of things to do as someone entering my preteens, i’d eventually grow out of it once I became a teen, and the concept of time and getting better sleep had become more obvious to me. Though my maturing mind contributed to the breaking of my habit, I feel as if whatever I had seen on that night also had a hand in it as well. 
It was a Wednesday night, and I had woken up at the usual 4:30 sharp to do my ungodly midnight television watching, carefully walking down the stairs, turning on the living room tv and quickly lowering the volume. As I flicked through the channels however, I began to realize that there was nothing at all interesting on that night, most channels like nick either consisting of reruns of “all that” and other sitcoms that only lasted 2 seasons. The other channels I frequented were of no luck either, and cartoon network was a big no-go for me due to my fear of whatever vulgar content aired on adult swim at that time.
Soon, I found myself on the sprout channel, which was one that my mom would put on for my 5 year old brother whenever his favorite shows were on. While sprout wasn’t really an interesting channel for me, the idea that more interesting programs airing at such an unthought of time intrigued my young self, and I decided that I'd check to see what was up. To my expected disappointment however, I was met with an “off the air” message, accompanied by their company logo and a blue gradient background, and I had decided that tonight I'd get some proper sleep.
Just as I was about to turn off the tv however, the screen had suddenly switched to black, and my attention had been taken once again. From what I remember, it took about a minute for whatever was broadcast to begin, but when it did come on, my interest went to confusion as what came on the tv was an episode of thomas and friends, a show that my brother frequently watched. While i wasn’t exactly a fan nor enthused by the show itself, I had memorized a lot of the names of the trains and other characters from my brother making me watch the show on an occasional basis, not only that, I had grown curious on why a show like that was airing at a time where normal kids unlike myself would be sleeping. Either way, I continued watching.
The intro and such was the usual fair, though one thing that stood out was the title for the episode. The episode was named “a bad day for james the red engine”, and while that seems normal, the font used in the title was completely different, as it had no fade in effect, black bordering around it or even proper font, it was as if whoever had done the editing for that part had no time at all to touch up things. 
The episode started with a view of tidmouth sheds at a distance, the lighting was a yellowish hue, and thinking about it now, it's very likely that the only light in the room were upper room lights. I could also see the edges of the set, exposing a few tripods and other beams that held it all up. 
The camera slowly zooms into the shed, and I could see that James was in the middle front shed, staring forwards with a sad face. It soon cut to a close up to his face, showing he had little plastic tears rolling down his cheeks. The scene stayed on this for about 20 seconds with no music or any accompanying narration, the only sound being the buzzing of what i can only assume to be a heater somewhere in the set. James soon began leaving the shed, the sound of the remote controlled motor whirring going off as he did so. I began to become incredibly confused at what i was watching, did they accidentally air a test reel or something? Either way, I continued to watch.
As James rolled along, he passed multiple sodor landmarks like the big station, the docks and other spots, the dim yellow lighting giving the sets a very eerie feel to it. As James passed through a station, I noticed something beside another track that caught my attention. What appeared to be the wreck of Thomas was sitting in the middle of the rail just by where he had passed by, looking as if someone had taken a hammer to him. After that, James wouldn’t pass by any landmark without there being the destroyed remains of an engine sitting either off the rails or on a set of rails, and my discomfort was now growing by the second.
After about a minute, james soon stopped at a set of buffers overlooking a studio floor, and the camera cut to his view. In front of him, a large puddle of some kind of black liquid had formed on the cement floor, still dripping, and about 5 seconds later, the camera began slowly panning upwards towards the source of it. As it panned up, my discomfort grew into fear as I began to make out features that, despite me being so young, I could clearly understand. 
Toes. feet. Legs. stomach. Chest. Arms. neck. Head. rope.
The camera panned up to show what looked to be an obese, naked dead man, hanging from a noose. A dark greyish liquid dripped from his mouth, to his stomach, wrapping around his leg and dripping fiercely. His skin had gone to a greenish gray and his neck was slightly stretched due to the strength of the noose. I was left in a state of pure fear at what I was watching, glued to the couch and unmoving out of horror. It then cut to his face, his rotten eyes slightly bulging out and dried out blood leaking from his nostrils.
I wanted to change the channel, I really did, but the pure fear of it all kept me in place. 
And then it began to speak. A voice rang out from nowhere while it stayed in view of it, clearly implying it was speaking.
“This is my departure,” it said, its voice stern and raspy, like it was trying to get air.
“I have provided you with prosperity and life, I have toiled away at your very form and given you the fruits of my and your own labour.”
It cuts to James, now looking up towards the hanging figure.
“Yet I have grown unaccustomed to this world and the inhabitants of it. I reigned down a great purge of forms yet you stand here, untouched. Is it stubbornness? Or is your own de-constitution which you fear? Or is it that you wish to depart with me?” 
It cut to James, his eyes moving around as if to show he was contemplating. The lighting becoming dimmer and dimmer as it cut between them.
“... I see… we shall depart these lands together. Come, young john, we shall start a world anew, we will build a great plateau of grass from our blood, we will form a great sea of dirt and lay the deserts with our hair, we will build hills from our eyes and towers with the tears we cry from memories of our old world.”
As the lights dimmed, I could hear what sounded like two men reciting what I can only describe as latin bible verses as the screen went completely dark. A minute later, the same off the air screen i saw 5 minutes earlier would appear.
I turned off the tv and went to sleep on the couch, too scared to go upstairs, too scared to go into my dark, empty room. I’m not even sure how I managed to get over this, but putting this into text now, I think growing up wasn’t the factor behind my broken habit. I never found out who made what I saw that night, but there’s a chance that I'll never know, and that’s honestly for the better.
Category:Television
Category:Lost Media
Category:Lost Episodes