THOMAS

After what I’ve seen, I’ll never be able to look at Thomas The Tank Engine the same way.

I was taking a stroll through a car boot sale when I came across an older man who kind of looked a bit shaggy and a bit… terrified.

The table he had consisted of a Granny Smith apple (evidently for him), a rusty tin (to hold his money), and a VHS, which had a reasonably rotten sticker on the bottom of the casing, which read out “THOMAS.”

Just “THOMAS.”

Me, having quite an extensive Thomas The Tank Engine collection, and being a fan of the classic Thomas episodes, took it upon myself to buy this VHS.

When I picked up the VHS, the older man woke up with a fright, and so I asked him how much he wanted for the VHS.

He simply said, “He’s going to find you… take it and burn it.” In other words, I got it for free.

At home, I went straight to my room and shoved the VHS straight into my old TV. It took a while to load up, but once it did, I got a chair and sat down to watch.

The VHS started with the Thomas theme tune. It was slightly lower pitched and slower than usual.

The colors were quite dull, and the windmill, which was supposed to be moving around, was just.... still..

As for Thomas himself – well, he was going a little bit faster than usual, as if he was running along to get something. The credits at the bottom of the screen were glitched, and the first two letters of each word were cut out.

The next scene, where Thomas is supposed to go under the bridge (no one was actually on the bridge), was the same visuals as before, dull color, fast Thomas.

Now, we get to see Thomas’s face. He looked a little bit more sinister than he usually was. The strangest thing was that Annie and Clarabel, Thomas’s two coaches, weren’t actually there – Thomas was actually alone. I began to feel uneasy.

Then came the last scene, where Thomas pulls into the station (dull color, fast Thomas again).

The station itself looked… abandoned. The roof was missing a lot of tiles, the walls were covered with graffiti, and some of the odd bits and bobs on the platform were either bent or broken. Thomas pulls up, still coach-less, and still wearing his sinister smile.

Just before the intro ended, an image flashed on the screen for about one frame. From what I could make out, it looked like The Fat Controller. He actually looked human, instead of the plastic figurines they used in the show.

He seemed genuinely horrified as if he had been really horribly scared. He had scars and bruises all over his face in the shape of a smiley face, like this – :).

The episode finally started, or, at least, what was supposed to be the episode.

In its place was just Thomas, and some random footage of him going around an empty railway. It was literally empty – there was no sign of Gordon, James, even little Percy!

*All this lasted for about one minute until something even the slightest bit interesting happened.*

Thomas came up to one single Troublesome Truck, but it looked scared as if it knew what was coming its way. Thomas was coupled up to it and started to build up steam. But he never actually moved forward – he was just skidding in place.

He was getting faster and faster.

The truck wasn’t going anywhere; it had its brakes on. Thomas then realized this and gave one last substantial big tug, which later resulted in the truck to break into planks and splinters.

Thomas then turned his eyes to me and said: “Now do you realize what I've done?”. However, he didn’t sound like Ringo Starr, or Michael Angelis (the two British narrators for the show) – his voice was deep and kind of croaky.

But yes, I did realize what he’s done..

He was the one responsible for the railway being empty. He killed all the engines and residents of the railway, just like the Troublesome Truck. He was EVIL.

Then he said, “Yes, that’s right…”. Evidently, he knew what I was thinking. *Now that’s just messed up.*

Then the screen cuts to black, which then fades into a picture of… no… it couldn’t be. It was the older man from earlier today. He looked dead. In fact, he WAS dead. Who else was to blame – it was obviously Thomas who did this. Who then appears on the screen.

What happened next was truly horrifying.

Thomas’s face was on the screen, and his eyes were actually empty. There was nothing there. Instead, there was blood streaming from his face.

*The sound – oh, god, the sound.*

It was just screeching, really loud screeching. I couldn’t take much more of this. I ejected the VHS, practically ripped it out before it correctly came out.

Then I heard a sound.

Now, my house is located near a switching yard, with a bunch of wagons and tankers in the sidings.

What I heard was familiar with. It sounded like a steam engine whistle.

It sounded like… Thomas.