Max and Ruby 0004

It was just this Christmas that went by, and things were getting busy. I had to start buying presents for the whole family. I had just finished shopping, but I still needed to grab a present for my little cousin. She is not very hard to shop for since my cousin is 4. She likes things like *Peppa Pig* and *My Little Pony*.

She really liked, and I say liked for a reason, *Max & Ruby*. So, when I decided to go looking for a present, I figured something like a *Max & Ruby* DVD would have been perfect since she liked to watch it on a daily basis. However, Christmas meant that many of the online DVDs were sold out on most places. I went to look on eBay as well but figured I could not trust what condition the DVDs would have been in. So I was stuck in a rut for a while until that package arrived.

I was at home, still scrolling for a stupid DVD until I heard the sound of something being pushed into my letterbox. I caught a hold of it before my dog did and looked at the package. It seemed to be wrapped fairly badly, with what looked like grease marks and stains on it. Naturally, as anyone would, I decided to open the package. Inside was something that I could not explain.

It was a *Max & Ruby* DVD, but I had never seen one like it online. It was like some little kid had drawn on the front cover with a marker. The title was just, "MAX AND RUBY", with what looked like a poorly drawn illustration of Max and Ruby on the front. There were no names or anything, but on the back, it had a list of 4 episodes, all with blunt titles.

1. Episode\_0001
2. Episode\_0002
3. Episode\_0003
4. Episode\_0004

I quickly gave the DVD a watch over. To my surprise, all the episodes were in perfect quality and seemed to have no flaws. It was as if it was a real DVD, just with a homemade cover. The only thing I thought appeared odd was the episode selection screen. The episodes had names, but they were all titled "MAX AND RUBY 1" with the numbers being changed as it went down the list. The actual selection screen was just a plain white screen with black text and nothing else.

After giving it much thought, I decided to change the cover to something a little nicer by printing out a DVD cover that I had found on Google and tracked down, and the names of the episodes so they were labeled correctly. So i left the episode list screen alone because I figured it was self-explanatory.

Christmas went by, and things were fine. I gave my little cousin her DVD and she was happy with it all through Christmas, but that was only because she hadn't watched it yet.

On Boxing Day, the family had gone out for lunch and left me to babysit my cousin. I was not too bothered about being left at home. I figured now was a good time to put on the DVD for her. I had put the DVD in and allowed it to play, while I was in the kitchen eating my dinner. From what I could hear, she had watched episodes 1 to 3 so far. I was just about to finish off my noodles when I heard my cousin screaming from the other room. Dropping everything, I had run into the living room and saw my cousin curled up on the floor screaming. I had looked up at the TV and I felt my heart in my throat.

What I caught a glimpse of was one of the most horrifying things I had ever seen. It was what appeared to be a frame of Max and Ruby standing next to each other, in complete darkness. But what made it so horrible was their lack of faces. They had lost their noses and mouths, and their eyes were replaced with big black holes. The colors were a disgusting blood red, and there was faint static in the background.

The sound was replaced with what sounded like the *Max & Ruby* theme playing backward, with the faint sound of static in the mix of it all.

It had to be the most disturbing thing I had ever seen, and it must have been on screen for at least twenty seconds before the screen went black and our television set turned off, which alone was weird because TVs don't usually turn off by themselves. I was able to calm my cousin down, telling her it wasn't real, and she had just had a nightmare as she had fallen asleep in front of the TV. However, I knew in my mind it was completely real.

My parents had rung me up and told me they were going to be out all night, so this was going to be the best opportunity to look at this DVD more closely. I didn't mention it to them, and as soon as the hung up I grabbed the DVD before opening it on my laptop. As soon as it loaded, I noticed that "Episode\_0004" had now been replaced with, " R.I.P. MOMMY AND DADDY", which sent a deep chill down my back. Since my cousin was now asleep, I plugged in my earbuds so he can sleep without having to hear anything.

Normally an episode of *Max & Ruby* would feature three short stories, but this episode only had one. It started off quite happy. Max and Ruby were playing tag in the garden, and their parents were on the porch watching them play. However, something was off. The sound was playing in reverse, and the parents' faces were that of sadness. It panned to the mother and father, and in a voice of deep sorrow, the father spoke.

"It's such a shame," he sighed.

It then cut short to the sound of static and a loud scream, followed by the sound of two people choking. The sounds felt so real, it made me almost physically sick.

The scene then switched to both Max and Ruby standing in front of what looked like a gravestone labeled, "R.I.P. MOMMY AND DADDY". The two of them had no faces. At this point, there was also no sound, apart from faint static. This scene remained on screen for about a minute and a half, before it cut away to black.

It then changed scene again, now showing Max and Ruby sitting in Ruby's room. Both of them were sobbing. The sobs were so realistic and heart wrenching that it sounded like it was recorded from a real person mourning.

What happened next was probably the most disgusting, yet saddest thing I have ever witnessed. The scene had changed to Max sitting in his room. He was standing on a chair with a noose hanging from the ceiling. He placed the noose around his neck. My computer scene faded to black as the static got louder. Almost instantly, it then cut to Ruby walking in on her brother.

She let out a horrific scream as the background turned black. The camera was panned on her face as the sound of a chair being kicked and the same choking from before began to play. The picture of Ruby's face stayed on screen for a good five minutes. This time, her eyes had returned as the same gaping holes. Ruby then started crying, and as before, there were no other facial features. The static slowly grew louder and drowned out the sound of her cries.

The scene cut to black with the loud static. When the screen returned, Ruby was standing, now on her own, in the garden by two gravestones. One was labeled, "R.I.P. MOMMY AND DADDY", and the other, "R.I.P. BROTHER".

At this point, I had already been sick and was sitting all shaken. The episode seemed to have come to an end at last, as an old computer noise started playing. I was about to eject the DVD when the same image came up like it did on the TV. This time, however, there was text above the two rabbits which said, "DEATH IS OUR ONLY RELEASE". There were no credits or anything else. It stayed on this for a few seconds before the DVD finally popped out of my laptop.

I sat there trying to contemplate what had happened. In my shock and fear, I made the foolish decision to break the DVD up as much as I could before leaving the house. Afterward, I shoved the pieces down the drain.

Thankfully, I kept a few screenshots and saved them to my laptop. The next couple of days went past without anything unusual happening. I had a few nightmares about that DVD, but luckily that was all. My cousin had gone back home along with the rest of her family.

It was a late night and my parents had gone out for dinner, leaving me to watch TV.

I heard what sounded like someone posting something through the door. At this point, the DVD had left my mind since I hadn't told anyone about it. However, it all came flooding back when I looked down at the letter in front of me. It was just messily folded up and said:

"Death is our only release."