Buttercup.mp4

Original Author: CynicalWarchild

My name is Manuel. I've worked at Principe County School for nearly a decade or so now. It isn't the most exciting thing ever, but it has a decent payoff and helps pay the bills just barely. There have been times where I would have to work overtime due to the mess some kid made, but it was worth it in the end.

Despite all of this, though, there was always one group of people at the school that would turn my day of boring strenuous hours of constant grinding for money into sheer joy; Dexter, Daisy, and Marco. Dexter was a... strange but interesting person. He had mild autism; he's high-functioning but extremely smart and often helps the students with their work should they ever get stuck on a problem. He had a passion for computer programming, and had even created his own custom operating system that worked pretty well.

Marco was a 10th grader; despite the fact that he was 16 years old, he had a childlike and charismatic attitude that everyone liked. He also worked as an assistant for the kindergarten teachers, so he often worked with younger children, which he was good at. His attitude and characteristics always made it a fun time.

Finally, there was daisy. She was in kindergarten. She was childhood innocence personified. Everyone loved her. She had brown hair and big brown eyes. She was the kind of warm-hearted person who would respect those, even if they didn’t respect her back.

As for me? Well, as I mentioned before, I’m the custodian, and again, it’s not a fun job for the most part, but it pays the bills. With that being said, my job has never been easy for me, nor was it particularly exciting for me, except for the kids that I mentioned before.

The school itself always had a weird aura to it. Specifically, the fact that lights in a large facility at the north side of the school would always turn on at exactly 1 AM every Friday night. I never had the chance to see what was going on. Some of you may be asking why I didn't just go in there during the day? Well, firstly, the place was always locked, and secondly, the area was restricted and people like me weren't allowed to enter the area. The building wasn’t part of the school, despite being within the property line.

I was always interested in the area. I mean, who wouldn’t be? The only people that were allowed to enter included the vice principal, and the principal, as well as some others that seemingly had no relation to the school itself, at least not that I knew of at the time. Mr. Lockett would always act weird when I, or some other person, would bring the topic up; he would either change the subject or speak very vaguely of it. He just said that It was for “special work” and was confidential.

Of course, his secrecy made me and everyone else even more interested. Some students would even spread rumors about what was hidden down there; from gold deposits, government experiments, all the way to secret alien technology. They were kids, so of course, their theories would be absolutely outlandish and flat-out ridiculous.

Daisy, being the innocent, do-good little girl she was, never hassled anyone about it. Marco was the exact opposite, and would use every chance he got to get the slightest hint as to what they were actually hiding in there, and Dexter…. When anyone would talk about it, even if he was a part of the conversation, he would pay no mind. He didn’t even seem to care; all he cared about was computer programming.

Then…… there was Ms. Myra. Myra was the lunch lady. She was well-known among the students, but for all the wrong reasons; she was pretty much the embodiment of the stereotype of what a lunch lady is; a creepy, maniacal, overly-charismatic old woman. No one really liked her, but she was the only person who wasn’t a hire-up who had access to the facility. I can still hear her laugh in my head if I sleep sometimes…

The food that she made was also strange. It was… different to say the very least from what else was served. At the time, no one could really put their finger on what was so strange about it; whether it was the taste, smell, or even how it looked. The descriptions of said food were always conflicting. What was also odd was the fact that Mr. Lockett. always treated her food like any other, and never commented on it.

However, things started to escalate when one of the high-schoolers tried to sneak into the facility during lunch hour. He attempted to climb the roof, but was quickly detained by a nearby security guard. Over the next few days, he would never show up for his classes. Finally, after a week and a half, he returned, but he was quiet. More quiet than usual. I tried asking him about it, but he would stutter and sometimes break down when I asked him about what happened after he was detained.

Mr. Lockett would always give the same nonchalant speech about what happened to him; he was detained, the higher ups had a chat with him and blah blah blah. The typical bullshit you’d hear from someone like him who obviously knew more about what happened but kept it all a secret.

After a month, the student went missing again and was never seen afterwards. I would occasionally see him walking down the street. I would greet him, but he would either turn his head away, walk to the other side of the road, or flat out tell me off.

One day, I was sitting on the bus stop waiting for a ride when I noticed Marco walk out of the gym across the street. I ran over to him. He seemed rather surprised at how frantic I was. I asked him if he wanted to go to the coffee shop to talk about some things. He agreed.

When we got there, we had a short conversation about the student who was detained by the facility. I asked Macro if he was able to get anything out of the student, but he was unable to. I ultimately gave up on the student, which probably was a good idea because a few days after my conversation with Marco, the student disappeared completely and was never seen again. I questioned students about it, and even some of the higher ups, but found nothing.

It was at this point where I threw my hands up into the air and said screw it. I was going to figure this thing out for myself, even if it killed me. I spent the next few nights scouting the area out. Needless to say, it was boring, but I had to do this if I wanted to even remotely get close to what I wanted to know.

Finally I had a clear layout of the area. There were several entrances, garages, and even a watch tower. This was it. I would finally get to the bottom of this. I needed to at least try. It was a warm midnight. I had made my way to the warehouse with water, a crowbar, a flashlight, and binoculars. Unlike all the other nights, this time, there was a large bonfire in front of the warehouse.

I creeped behind a bush and noticed several large men in black hoodies sitting in front of the bonfire talking about something. I don’t remember much from the conversation, but a few key phrases remain; from what I remembered, they were talking about some sort of “recipe”, and how the “great feast” was supposed to happen tonight.

I quickly moved away before they could notice me. I came across a pathway leading to the entrance of the warehouse. Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming from behind me. I jumped and ran for the entrance of the warehouse. I opened the door and quietly shut it behind me. The room contained nothing but a metal shelf, a fan, and a desk with a computer on it. I tried to unlock it, but I couldn’t.

“Ugh… where is Dexter when I need him?” I asked myself.

I walked through the door that led to a larger room. This one was a lot more furnished than the prior, with a large HD TV, several chairs and couches. The TV was on, and it showed some type of video menu. There were four videos listed. I only remember a few of them as the following: Salted Snail, Man Animal, and Tea Kids. The thumbnails didn’t look nefarious in the slightest. Tea Kids showed a group of children sitting around a table with several tea cups on it, salted snail showed a bowl of salt, and man animal showed a paper of an anatomical diagram of a large dog. I still found it unnerving. The thumbnails were rather mundane and if it weren't for the place I had found them in, I wouldn't have thought anything of it at all.

“Hey man… I think an intruder is here”

I noticed 2 men walking towards the door of the room I was in. I sprang up and ran towards the opposite door and barged through and shut it behind me quietly like I did the last. Hundreds of different tools and cutting weapons lined the walls and meat hooks were hanging from the ceiling. A sharp cold chill ran down my spine as I roamed the room.

I noticed a Windows desktop computer sitting at the other end of the room next to a doorway leading to a dark room. There was a metal baseball bat by the table. The computer was on, and open to a folder containing 3 videos. I double-clicked on one of the videos. It was called “buttercup.mp4”. It was 50 minutes long.

The video started. I was met with an image of a stage with black curtains. Suddenly, a man in a red and black robe came through the curtains holding a microphone. He started to speak to his audience.

“Welcome, brothers and sisters of the Gate! I, father Lockett, am ecstatic to announce that we will be holding our great feast to celebrate the founding of this wonderful town. The students of this school have no idea how lucky they are to experience this!"

The camera panned over the audience. There were hundreds of people in similar clothing to the man on the stage. They were all sitting at one large fancy table with various utensils, plates and fruits placed upon it. They started to cheer and clap, and some were yelling “Hail to the Lord!”. The camera panned back to the man on the stage.

“Thank you, thank you all. Now, we have our first special guest of the night. This kid is incredibly lucky to be here, but he refuses to acknowledge it, and for that, he will get the privilege of being our first meal sample for tonight."

Then, two large men carrying a big box covered in a sheet came through the curtains. The men put the box down and the stageman took the sheet off and opened the box. Out came a young boy. He was knocked out. The man was holding the kid and started to speak again.

“We shall consume the youthfulness of this boy as our ancestors before us!”

The crowd started to cheer once again. Then, a woman in all white wheeled in a table with various tools and cutting weapons on it. Before the sick man could begin the procedure, I closed the video.

I stood there for what seemed like hours. Suddenly, I heard a dark, deep-toned growl come from the dark room by the left of me. Chills ran down my spine as I realized how utterly fucked I was.

"Hey Henry! I think he’s in there…. Hoo boy he fucked with the wrong guys!!” I heard someone say. I grabbed the baseball bat. All of a sudden, a man ran in and started to charge at me with a chainsaw. I hit the man square in the head and climbed out the window. I ran until I couldn’t. I made it to my home, almost throwing up from running so much.

I sat down on my couch and thought about what I saw, until it finally registered fully.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. The…. These people are cannibals, and worst of all…. Said cannibals are a part of some insane devilish death cult. I had to do something. But what? What the hell do you even do in a situation like this? If the police are in on it, then the SWAT probably is as well, right? Who the hell can help in this situation? The National Guard? The Secret Service? Then I realized… that man on the stage was Principal Lockett.

I was contemplating telling the police, but then I started to think; Why haven’t they done something before? Were they in on it? I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell the other students about this, because I knew that rumors would spread like wildfire and it wouldn’t be long before one of the cult’s members noticed that someone talked, and the students would be subject to some kind of horrible psychological torture, or would be fed to whatever creature was awaiting me in that dark room before someone gave in and told them it was me who told everyone.

The next day, I barely got any work done. I talked a bit with Marco and Daisy, and that made me feel a bit better, but it didn’t do much to ease my extreme paranoia. I was worried for their safety, along with the safety of the other students of the school. I tried my best to avoid any and all eye contact with Lockett, Myra, and the vice principal.

When I got home, I noticed that my door was open slightly. Weird.. I always make sure to lock it when I leave. Oh well. I must’ve forgotten. I walked in and closed it behind me. I walked into my room, sat at my desk, and turned my PC on.

Suddenly, a small gas grenade came flying through my window. My vision blurred and I fell to the ground moaning. I was going unconscious. The last thing I remembered from that day was seeing a large man in a gas mask carrying an assault rifle standing over me.

I woke up hours later in a dark room. I yelled but no one responded. The light suddenly turned on and I was met with something that looked like it was straight out of a fucking horror movie; cages, with bones and rotting body parts in them. I was tied to a chair. I heard a soft whimper coming from the right of me. I saw Marco, Daisy, and Dexter. It was the dark room next to the room with the Windows computer in it.

“C’mon man we can talk about this. Just please let us go and we won’t say anything” Dexter tried to reason, but it fell on deaf ears.

I then knew where the growl came from; I looked to the left and saw….. A thing. It was a fucking monster. Literally; it had the body shape of a dog, but it looked reptilian.

It had eight eyes on its head; four on each side. It looked at me and hissed and growled some more. I tried to scream but I couldn’t get anything out for some reason.

Then, the door burst open and Lockett walked in with another large masked man carrying a shotgun.

“Why… how… How could you do this!” I yelled at him.

“Now Manuel… Don’t be like that. You knew what you were getting into, and you knew for a fact that you had no right to be here when you snuck in like a snake. It’s a shame, really. I actually liked you quite a lot. I don’t want to do this, but because you’ve seen everything, I simply can’t risk you entering the public zone ever again. Say goodbye to these children while you still can, ‘cause you’re never seeing them ever again.”

“Go fuck yourself, you un-civilized cannibal freak.” I said to him.

Watch your language, man. It’ll only be worse for these kids if you continue to run your mouth and talk shit” he said back.

He then grabbed Daisy and the other man grabbed Dexter and Marco. Marco tried to put up a fight but the other man was stronger than he was. I tried to break free, but I couldn’t. A few minutes passed until a man in a ski mask walked in and undid my ropes. I then immediately took the opportunity and punched him right in the face.

“Hey now, that wasn’t very nice” he said. He then walked back to the exit, took out some sort of remote, pressed a button, and the lock on the creature’s cage popped off. He ran out and locked the door. The reptile creature slowly walked towards me. I looked for a weapon. The only thing that I could use was the chair I was tied to. I picked it up, and the creature went berserk.

It charged at me and jumped towards me, going right for my jugular. I moved out of the way and hit it on the back with the chair. The chair broke. I was stunned for a few seconds. I took the chance and picked up the broken leg of the chair.

The entity got back up and ran at me once again. It pounced on me and pinned me to the ground. One arm was free and I grabbed the chair leg and got it good in the neck. It fell to the side. I got back up and grabbed the seat of the chair and hit the thing right in the head. Its skin was thick, I kept on doing this until it stopped moving. I didn’t know if it was dead or not, but I didn’t care.

After getting the door open, I was met with a horrifying sight; dozens of bodies on meat hooks. Some of them were complete with no limbs missing, and others were just torsos with no head, arms, or legs. The room smelled like complete death. It was hard to traverse the room without vomiting my guts out despite the fact that it was only about 15 - 20 steps to reach the other end of the room.

The only thing on my mind was the safety of Daisy, Marco, and Dexter. I had to get to them as soon as I possibly could. I armed myself up with a large combat knife that was nearby when I left the room with the beast. I was terrified, but I pressed on anyway. I was roaming the dark halls of the warehouse only illuminated by dim lights when I heard a little girl scream down the hall.

I ran down the hall and came to the door of the room from which the scream came from. I grabbed the knob and turned it slowly. It wasn’t locked, as if they knew that I was coming. I saw Daisy….. Strapped down to an operating table. There was a doctor type man holding a surgical drill above her head. Myra and Lockett were next to him

“Oh? You defeated Shredder? I’m surprised…. He was the most powerful creature I’ve seen. Hm. You’re tougher than I thought.” I turned around slowly and saw him walking towards me.

His condescending tone and facial expression really pissed me off. Rage of unspeakable degrees ran through my veins. It felt so primal and raw, and much different from the normal frustration than I felt while at work. It’s really something that you need to experience for yourself to know what it’s like. Daisy turned her head and looked at me with scared eyes.

“Set her free. Set her free right now before I cut your fucking head off in front of all of your mentally insane cronies”

He replied:

“I underestimated you. It will not happen again. I suggest you back off now, or the torture that Daisy receives will only worsen.”

Suddenly, the doctor guy pulled out a Glock and walked over to me slowly while aiming the weapon at my head. I think I may have blacked out. I don’t know how I did what I did, but I swiftly plunged the knife into the side of the doctor’s throat. It slid in and out perfectly.

I made my way over to Lockett. He picked up the drill and was about to drive it into Daisy’s skull, but I grabbed his wrist and twisted it as hard as I could. He dropped the drill. I tried to put the knife in his cranium but he was too quick. He dodged and pushed me to the ground. He then took off down the hallway, fleeing as a coward.

I picked up the knife and cut Daisy’s bonds that were holding her down. I told her to stay behind me. We walked out of the room to look for Marco and Dexter. Daisy was trying her best to contain her fear, and I tried to keep her as quiet as possible so our cover wouldn’t be blown. I knew that if anyone caught us, we’d be gone for sure. A few more minutes of agony passed until we reached the end of the hallway.

It was the back entrance to the feasting room. There were hundreds of patrons, all talking amongst one another about what the feast would be. I backed away instantly. There was a fork in the hallway. As we made our way through it, I heard another scream. It sounded like Marco. It was coming from two doors down. We made our way to the door. I looked through the small window in the door, but the view was blocked by the head of Myra.

There was another man guarding another door on the left. He was carrying an M4. I had to think for a little while as to how we were going to accomplish this. The longer I looked at Marco hanging by his hands, the more frantic I became. He noticed me, but he didn’t say anything. He just stared at me. The man with the M4 then walked over to him. Marco then glanced back at me and nodded. I nodded back, and as soon as the man undid his bonds, Marco jumped on him and punched him in the face repeatedly. He lifted weights daily, so he had decent strength to use against the guy. I used this opportunity as Myra was running over to the fight. I busted the door open. I ran over to the man and drove the knife into his back. He screamed in pain before falling to the ground moaning.

Myra then ran for Daisy. That’s when Marco picked up the M4 and aimed it right at Myra’s head.

“You’re not touching her! Put her down before I blow you fucking brains out right now!"

The evil bitch just stood there, saying nothing. She lifted her hands off of Daisy’s shoulders. Daisy then instantly ran behind Marco. Marco walked towards her. Myra tried to grab him but he hit her square in the head with the butt of the gun. He pressed the barrel against her head after she fell to the ground.

She then spoke:

“You’ve never listened to us, have you? All of what you know is false. Only by consuming the minds of youth shall you find salvation. Our god will show you the way…”

Marco replied:

“What the actual fuck are you going on about, you mental patient? You’re insane. Seriously. You’re fucking psychotic!”

Myra didn’t say anything for a few seconds before saying:

“You can live foreve-” Marco then put a bullet in her head. He noticed a picture frame hanging on the wall of Lockett and four other men and one woman, not Myra, but a younger woman and three other men I didn't recognize.

"We're putting all of these people away. Every one of 'em. Fucking savages!" Marco said before tossing the picture to the ground and stomping on it.

He then turned to me and said that we need to leave right now. I did not disagree with him. We heard the cultists yelling. We ran down the hall until we found the exit.

We ran outside. I saw the same men I saw the night I sneaked in. Marco emptied the entire magazine into the seven men. He caught up with us and said that there was a whole mob of them. I asked him where Dexter was.

“T-they…. He got--”

He broke down into tears. I knew that Dexter was dead.

The next few days were a haze of memories. I was afraid that the police and local SWAT were in on it. As it turns out, they were. I had to alert the authorities of the neighboring county. The National Guard was called in and raided the warehouse. The school was condemned for investigation. There were over 4000 members of the cult at the building, and about 3000 more spread out around the county for a total of 7000 psychopathic religious fanatics, all of which were subsequently arrested. We later found out that if someone committed a crime in this county and was arrested, they would be sent to the warehouse and sacrificed instead of imprisoned. Lockett was found 2 days later and was sentenced to life in prison. I was ecstatic to hear about that. Now, no one would ever fall victim to his sick rituals again.

Our victory was at a cost, however.

We went to Marco’s house, only to find his dead parents in their bed. He had a mental breakdown upon finding them, and was never the same since. Daisy’s parents had the same fate. I took them in. Daisy’s innocence was permanently tarnished and ruined. She cried herself to sleep every night. Marco tried his best to comfort her and cheer her up, but it never worked that well.

Marco fared no better. He still goes to the gym every day, but his charismatic and happy-go-lucky attitude has completely disappeared. As for the boy in the Buttercup.mp4 video? It turned out that it was the student who climbed the roof of the warehouse before. It still boils my blood to think of Lockett and Myra, but I need to get all of this out. Know the schools you enroll your children in, as there is a small chance that there is something horrible going on behind the scenes. As unlikely as it may be, better safe than sorry.