Discovery Island

**Discovery Island,** or as it's more infamously known as, Treasure Island, is an abandoned Disney resort that was opened in the 90's to be a stopping point for cruises to let off guests so they could relax in luxury. Out of the blue Disney abandoned the island and had almost all information about the place scrubbed off the face of the Earth. During the early 2010's a blog poster would venture out to the island upon reading about it online and discovered that the place was overrun by jungle, along with what was left from the original Disney resort being now barren. Thoroughly disappointed that nothing of particular note happened, the blogger went inside Mowgli's Palace to sit and reflect about his journey when he noticed a room at the bottom of a staircase that read "Mascots Only" on it. Very intrigued, the blogger walked inside, finding that the room was full of old mascot suits with a peculiar photo negative Mickey suit sitting in the middle of the room, its back to the wall. After finding out there were human remains in an old Donald Duck head, the photo negative Mickey stood up and asked if the blogger wanted to see its head come off, before clawing at its own head, causing chunky, yellow blood to ooze out. The blogger, now completely terrified, ran out of the room and escaped Discovery Island, never to return. The blogger would then make a now-famous post about his experiences to a website, although this would cause him to be stalked by Disney itself and and the blogger would disappear online with one final goodbye.

## Vacation to Treasure Island

Now you may be wondering, "how the fuck does this relate to PZW??" Well my impatient little gen alpha brain, in the summer of 2022 The Wah Box was searching for places where the PZW group could go on vacation. After passing over your usual tourist spots like Bermuda, France, North Korea, Zanzibar, Greece, Former Yugoslav Republic of North Macedonia, and DK Jungle, Wah eventually came across a post about an Island with an appealing name: "Treasure Island". Wah's head was instantly consumed by the thought of riches and jewels, so he booked tickets to the Bahamas and sold everyone on the idea. Upon reaching Treasure Island, it became very apparent that there would be no gold, no relaxation, and no more nuzzle; the whole island was covered in densely-packed tropical trees that made it almost impossible to see inside of. The collective disappointment was palpable, before a new feeling of dread quickly overtook it.

Funky, Vania, Wahbox, Breadlord, Crystlon, Jenn, ~~and Moe~~ were all now stranded here for the next 7 nights before the boat they took was scheduled to come back. Funky took charge and made discussion on where to go from here next. Various answers were given, such as Crystlon suggesting building a raft, or Jenn saying maybe they could tough it out on the beach by spear fishing and making a hut. Any ideas were dashed by a sudden storm, causing everyone to run quickly into the jungle in a desperate attempt to find shelter from the rain. The trek was tiring and confusing— trees and bushes would sometimes block or redirect the group, never truly letting them go forward in a coherent manner, all the while a torrential downpour hailed on to them from above. It was quickly becoming unbearable, maddening, *consuming* even, but then... there it was; a clearing made its presence known. However, it was not natural in the slightest— it was too precise, too perfectly laid out for mother nature to be behind its origin. At the center of the clearing was a large building covered in vegetation and visible weathering.

It was Mowgli's Palace.

   The "Palace", if you could even call it that at this point, was quickly decided to be the place where everyone was going to take shelter from the outside and function as a base of operations of sorts where the group would hold discussions on what tasks needed to be done and how to potentially call out for help. With everyone now settled in, Breadlord and Crystlon became curious of the gargantuan building. It seemed decades old, and the thought of possibly discovering something useful—or just outright interesting—proved too great to pass up. The two explored around and found a myriad of rooms, all seeming to have been stripped of anything worthwhile long ago; the bathrooms were boring, the kitchens were empty, and the meat locker, while possessing large hanging meat hooks, turned up utterly useless. On the way back though, a quiet, whispering-like noise could be heard if Breadlord focused enough on it, though he brushed it off as the wind from the storm. Nightfall soon came and the group decided to sleep in a lounge room that, surprisingly, still had couches and their accompanying pillows.

The next two days proved uneventful. Vania and Funky took turns leading expeditions into the jungle, looking for resources such as coconuts, which became the staple meal of everyone when the rations they brought ran out. On day 3, it was decided that the entirety of Mowgli's Palace would be explored and documented to make sure nothing potentially dangerous was hiding somewhere, like giant snakes or homeless people, and to get a proper understanding of the building's layout. The bathrooms, meat locker, and kitchen were all spared due to Crystlon and Breadlord already exploring them previously.

Floors one and two were cleared, thankfully with nothing of concern being found. Everyone was ready to carry on when Jenna noticed a stairway leading down to a room labelled "Mascots Only." Wahbox got excited at the idea of possibly taking and reselling old Disney merch or other items, so he rushed down and busted the rusted old door open, which gave way to a dark, intimidating room. Funky tried flipping a switch, but that proved useless as the light bulbs were long dead. Luckily though, Vania and Crystlon were smart enough to bring flash lights before they left, so they provided illumination for everyone to see with. The walls were lined with very old, almost *rotted* mascot suits, with shelves above holding their respective character heads. Oddly, though a Donald Duck suit had its head on the floor next to a pile of what looked to be ash or dust. The further back they went into the room, the stronger a putrid smell began to permeate the air, leading Breadlord to find a puddle of stinking, almost completely crusted yellow sludge on the floor. He almost gagged upon trying to get a better look, and Jenna said it was most likely the remains of some animal that died here God knows how long ago. Thoroughly grossed out and wanting to get fresh air, everyone made their way back upstairs until Vania stopped and looked up with her flash light, seeing something scratched into the wall above the door way. "Abandoned by God." This was clearly the work of some edgy trespasser who came before them, so they all kept along.

Day 4 was when things started to get interesting. It started at first with items being misplaced from where they were last put, furniture being moved around, backpacks and their contents strung about, phones in different rooms— it was very confusing, and even caused an accusation or two. Then, it was the footsteps and whispers growing louder. At random parts of the day while everyone would be hanging around in the lobby, distinct footsteps could be heard coming from somewhere on the second floor, only for them to cease when a hunting party would rush up stairs to confront it. Then the whispers got louder *much* louder. You'd think that now you could hear the voices clearer that you would be able to make sense of what they were saying, but you'd be dead wrong. Imagine you are walking in your house when suddenly a YouTube Poop featuring clips from 7 different shows are spliced together randomly and start playing from somewhere so close, but just out of reach. That is what the voices sounded like, different segments of conversations wildly varying from one another, making it impossible to follow along and get any sort of meaning from it.

On night 5, Breadlord woke up in the middle of the night and had to go use the bathroom. Since the bathrooms didn't have running water, it was decided early on that everyone was to go outside to relieve themselves to keep things from smelling. Breadlord grabbed his phone and made his way down to the lobby and outside. The dark forest greatly scared him it was the perfect environment for a predator of some kind to jump out and drag him away never to be seen again, so he went in a hurry over to a near by palm tree. Having finished his business, Breadlord ran back when rustling from the bushes caught his interest. He took a photo from in front of him and slowly walked backwards into the Palace.

Day 6 had come along, and for the first time in about a week, there was excitement and hope since tomorrow was the day that everyone would leave this godforsaken place. To celebrate, Jenna, Funky, and Wahbox went out to look for bananas while Vania, Crystlon, and Breadlord stayed at Mowgli's Palace to ready the party. During their hunt, Funky felt a great sense of unease, like that of being watched. It became even more apparent that something was wrong when Jenna pointed out that the birds and insects had stopped making noises. Wahbox brushed it all off since he wanted to smash into banana trees and collect their delectable fruit. On the walk back Funky really made it a point again that since they left not a single animal had made a noise. No chirps, no fluttering, no hisses, it was like the whole island had gone mute.

Then it happened.

To the right of everyone, a voice came out from the foliage. “*Hey,*” it said, in a hushed, echoing, *almost* *perfect* impression of Mickey Mouse. Jenna started recording on her phone for proof they hadn’t gone completely crazy. Out from a rather dense set of trees and bushes tumbled out a dirty and worn down Mickey Mouse costume with a strikingly photo negative color palette. Blues were red, whites were black— it looked like an error you’d see while editing a photo. “*Wanna see my head come off?*” The thing said. Everyone’s blood ran cold. Up until now, everyone was under the impression it was just them on this island; no one else should’ve been here, and yet before them stood this monstrosity of a being. A million thoughts ran through Funky’s head; *What the hell is that? How did we not see it until now? Was that the thing causing all the items in the rooms to move while we were asleep?* But the biggest, most loudest one screamed *RUN*.

Funky was the first to break the trance everyone had been under, booking it to the Palace to get help and warn the others. Jenna and Wah followed closely behind as the thing let out an unnerving laugh and gave chase. When they finally reached Mowgli’s Palace after what felt like running a marathon, Vania, Crystlon, and Breadlord rushed down, having heard the shouting from outside. Funky and Wah tried to explain quickly what happened, but as soon as they said the word “Mickey,” Jenna screamed, seeing the thing rushing towards the entrance. The other 3 looked and instantly got hit with a bus of emotions, the biggest being fear. The Wahbox and Vania slammed the doors and held it in place as Funky and Breadlord threw a table over an exposed window to stop this thing from getting inside from any way. Crystlon and Jenna quickly ran over to the entrance as well to reinforce it, and just as they made it, a strong, loud, and repetitive banging hit the double doors. Try as it might, the thing wasn’t getting in without a fight. The banging let up thankfully, causing everyone to hold their breaths when a sledgehammer cracked its head into the middle of the door. Somehow, the thing had gotten its hands on a sledgehammer and was now using it to break down the door. The door's condition was getting worse by the second, and everyone's dread grew with each hole being knocked into the frail old doors. Eventually resistance proved futile, and the door caved in. Everyone ran together to the second floor. No one spared a second in hauling ass to the top, it sounded like the thing was always just two steps away from reaching them. Soon the group came to the top floor and they were at a dead end. Wahbox, using his quick thinking, smashed a window and told everyone to jump onto a near by palm tree. With just seconds to spare they all jumped onto the tree, sliding down in succession until they reached the bottom. The creature looked down from the window, seeing everyone dash into the jungle, its frozen smile devoid of all emotions.

Night fell and the group was now back where they started 5 days earlier on the beach. Everyone was shaken to their very core by a being that had no right to exist, and they all had a long journey through therapy ahead of themselves. No one slept that night, and at least two people were on guard duty to make sure no other eldritch horror made its way onto the beach. Sunlight eventually came, and around 2 PM the boat that dropped them off had finally come back to pick them up and bring them back to mainland America. No one got answers, and to this day the memory of Discovery Island brings shivers to those who experienced it.