Ditched

This is a picture I took from a corrupted SpongeBob SquarePants bootleg tape. The tape itself contained around four episodes (albeit in the wrong order) from the second season and had quite possibly the worst quality I've ever seen in any VHS, with extremely coarse video and audio that sounded like it was muffled by a pillow. None of that is important compared to the part I took this picture from, though. 
I found this tape in a library section at Goodwill, as I like to look around for various treasures every once in a while. I don't normally buy VHS tapes, but this one in particular caught my eye with how mysterious it came off to me. On the side was a label written with pen, and it read "TO GEORGIA JEFFERIES." It made me wonder. Was this a personal belonging that someone brought here either out of anger or on accident? I have heard cases of people taking their wedding videos or family photos to this place, so it was no different. I thought that maybe I could return it to its owner, so I bought it with my debit and headed over to my dad's place. After all, he was the only guy I knew who had a cassette player. I'm sure as hell not buying one.
After a rough setup process, I put the tape in and pressed the play button. Imagine my surprise when the SpongeBob intro showed up. The damn video slid so much that I could barely make out the first few frames, but it eventually stopped and played as normal. One small thing I noticed was that the Nickelodeon screen bug wasn't in the corner of the screen, as if this was an actual, recorded copy from the company themselves.
Then, after the first three episodes were done and dusted, "Dumped" played.
It went on as normal, with Gary staying with Patrick at his rock, SpongeBob getting jealous, and so forth. It was fine, up until it reached the scene with Patrick showing up to SpongeBob's house to get soap for Gary. Remember that one scene where SpongeBob asks if Gary wants "Fresh Scent or Heavy Duty," but then he stutters halfway through "duty" due to his sad state? Well, that rewinds twice in the video, and the audio spikes, to the point where he sounds like he's saying "two."
After the stuttering bug, SpongeBob's eyes suddenly distended until they were swelling, and his mouth shrank to where it couldn't be seen. He then dropped the soap from his hands and turned to his left. Patrick and Gary had disappeared, leaving behind what seemed to be an actual transparent image of something on SpongeBob's sandy floor. A pair of black gloves.
SpongeBob gulped, and breathed heavily, but at this point, he didn't sound like how he usually would. He sounded like someone from a slasher film trying to escape from the killer, if that's a good enough way to describe it. A few seconds later, his puffs slowed down, and he eyed upon his door. Looking behind him, and then to his right, he made his way over to the door, and turned the knob, before taking a peek outside.
What followed was actual footage of a specific area suddenly showing up, with the time and date of it being recorded on the bottom left. It looked like a grassy field, blowing away in the windy setting, with a road in the front, and many, many trees in the back. The video was completely still, with no sign of the holder in front of the camera. No hands, no body, nothing.
This went on for a few seconds before the video jittered and cut back to SpongeBob peeking out of his door. His eyes weren't circular anymore. They were structurally correct, from the eyelash to the pupil. He made his way back inside, before positioning himself back to where he was when this strange scene started. He shook in place, his fists clenching until they whitened, and then it happened. SpongeBob had no holes in his face, nor did he have a nose, but along with the natural-looking eyes, he had a human mouth with misaligned teeth. The shot looked heavily posterized, and a specific line from SpongeBob during the original scene would repeat. Mixed with the line were sounds of SpongeBob loudly sobbing.
"I'm a wreck without you! I'm a wreck without you! I'm a wreck without you!"
Various random words flashed on-screen, spaced out between sets of ellipsis. Words such as "television" and "yogurt." This continued on for a few seconds before the tape ejected from the slot. Upon seeing what I had just seen, and all the bizarre shit that came from it, I had to know who this "Georgia Jefferies" woman was and why this was being sent to her. I just had to. I needed all the answers I could get.
I tried a good few methods. Making a Facebook page asking friends in my area if they know someone by that name, encouraging them to spread the find, and even checking online phone books. By sheer luck, I managed to find one person. A thirty-seven-year-old woman, living in the same town as me. Her phone number, address, and previous information were listed. I ultimately decided to visit her house to hand over the tape, as I felt like calling her over the phone and not knowing what I looked like would come off as less friendly.
To put it simply, yes, it was the right person. For reasons I honestly didn't expect at all.
She asked me what was on the tape, and I informed her of everything that I saw. When I got to the part involving the grassy area and the random words, she looked like she was panicking out of her mind, while trying to be quiet. I asked her what's wrong, and she told me to repeat what I mentioned to her. I told her about the exact details I saw, and just for added measure, what words I remembered seeing. Here's what she said to me.
On February 2, 2012, a finger belonging to her six-year-old son was found near a field about three miles from her home. Shortly after, a DNA test was made, and the results were given back to her. The location was similar to what I had described. Her husband didn't take him to school at the time he went missing. He was sick with an upper respiratory infection at the time, so his son had to take the bus, or at least, they thought he had taken the bus. A missing persons report was filed when he ended up not coming home.
Elf, elephant, yogurt, red, and yoyo were some of the words I saw on-screen. She told me that he dressed as an elf for Halloween a year before the case, yogurt was one of his favorite snacks to eat, red was his favorite color, the elephant was his favorite animal, and his favorite toy was a yoyo that he'd carry to recess when he got bored. She still had that yoyo. 
His favorite show in the whole wide world had to be SpongeBob. He'd go straight to watching it after-school whenever he finished his homework.
When her son was found, it was a revolting sight. In the woods, he was found dead in an underground cellar by a few teenagers, drenched in rubbing alcohol. His limbs were bound with duct tape, and so was his mouth. They also found a small safe against the steel wall. Not only was everything touching the safe covered with rubbing alcohol, including the money inside, but a lone pair of rubber gloves were also found on top of it. When locals that dwelled near the area were questioned by police if they had witnessed anyone go near the woods, many replied saying that they didn't remember seeing anybody go near there, let alone spot a single individual outside. Those who did see someone reclaimed witnessing a person in winter attire. The case went cold.
Disgusted, I offered to take this tape to the police for her. She begged me to do it, and rightfully so. What else would she have done?
The authorities brought it over to their interrogation room to watch, and they asked me the usual questions, like how she knew this was linked to the death of her child, for starters. We paused at certain frames, manually rewound a few times, and I pointed out the things I brought up. That's when I noticed something odd. The words that were shown on-screen weren't just this poor kid's favorite things. Upon taking a closer look, the first letter of each word formed something when put together. It was a hidden message.
They're lying.
Category:Lafawnda's Reading Hour
Category:VHS
Category:Remake
Category:SpongeBob
Category:SpongeBob SquarePants
Category:Murder
Category:Death
Category:Cartoons
Category:Bootleg
Category:Retake