The Blue Heron

This isn't gory. Creepy, sad, but not gory. Probably not for younger readers, though.

As you probably know, quite a while ago, new Jammers started off in a ship called the Blue Heron, greeted by Liza. Jammers that were already playing were even invited to come and see the ship. But it was soon removed and nobody knows why.

Well, I do.

It all started when I was talking with my best friend on Skype, alone in my room, the evening after school got out for the year.

"Hey, Naomi, do you know about the game Animal Jam?" my friend Katie said.

"No, what is it about? Does it have gore?" I asked skeptically.

"Of course not! It's the sweetest game ever. You should really try it." she reassured me.

"Fine. What's the link?" She put the link in chat, and I clicked on it. It really did look like a cute game. "Huh. Maybe I will try it." I clicked the "Play Now" sign the rabbit was holding up and created my "character", a rabbit, finally naming it "Rosy Littleflower". Satisfied, I clicked the "Play" button at the end. I sort of forgot what the human-panda hybrid, aka "Liza the panda alpha" said, so I did the normal stuff like bought a cute little flower to go on my rabbit's head.

"How is it so far?"

I jumped, forgetting that Katie was still on the call with me.

"Oh my Gosh, sorry Katie. Yeah, it's going fine so far."

"What's your username?"

"Umm, let me check..."

I quickly finished the tutorial, figuring that Katie would be able to tell me everything anyways. Looking at the menu at the bottom of the screen, I navigated to my username.

"It's... Wait a second.. What? I didn't put that down." I said, confused.

"Just, what is it?" Katie impatiently asked.

"It's RedHeron. I really don't know. I didn't choose it."

"Wait a minute.." she How did you see that? I just realized you're supposed to be called New Jammer until they approve your name.." she wondered, clearly confused too.

"Weird. Must be a glitch." I decided out loud. Suddenly I heard a loud noise, much like a scream, and then Katie hung up.

"What the.." I thought. I was a bit scared now, but I tried calling Katie back on Skype. It didn't work. She was offline.

"Whatever. Let's just play this stupid game," I mumbled to myself, and made my rabbit go into its "den".

When my rabbit got teleported to its den, things looked very strange. First of all, the "den" didn't look like a den at all. It looked more like the Blue Heron. Then I realized this wasn't my den. This was the Blue Heron. I stared on at my computer screen.

Second of all, there were many other non-member animals (mostly rabbits and things that vaguely resembled wolves) crowded on the Blue Heron, all using the "confused" emote or the "surprised" emote, or asking "What's going on?" or "Where am i?" I said nothing, and did nothing, just looked on. After a bit, a large blue wolf with one eye came through the door at the top of the ledge. "Greely!" exclaimed some of the animals with shock.

"Jammers!" he announced at the top of the ledge.

"Why is he actually talking? Like through the speakers?" I murmured and turned down my computer's volume.

"It has come to our decision that there will be no more non-member in Animal Jam!"

"What? Does that mean they will give us free membership?" I thought, remembering all the good things that members get to do that I found out when I tried to change the color of a tiara.

"Do you know what that means, jammers?" he bellowed to the crowd of animals, who were all pretending to be in shock and excitement.

"It means that you will be no more!" Greely said, and an evil cackle filled my room.

In shock, I tried to click on the game's map, but it turned gray and unclickable. I tried to log out, but that didn't work either. Then, I tried to close the tab, then tried to close the window. It was to no avail. Finally, I tried to shut down my computer and even unplugged it from the wall, but that didn't change anything. Feeling defeated, I sighed and looked back at my screen.

"Goodbye, Jammers. And say goodbye to your animals. One. Last. Time." Greely said, seeming to mock us. Maybe this was because the view changed to our animal's perspective. I don't know. All the animals suddenly broke out into chaos, running around and frantically talking to each other. "I can't turn off my computer!" "Me neither!" "I can't log out!" "HELP MEE!!!" Many were also doing sad emotes. Again, I did nothing except stare at my screen with wide eyes. Slowly, though, I saw and nearly felt the bow of the ship tilt forward.

Finally, I said something. "Guys, do you see that?" I said into the chat. For some reason, people stopped talking and moving for a moment, until someone said "Yes, I see it!" someone exclaimed. "We're going to drown!" another wailed. "Why can i feel it??" someone puzzled. Then, the entire boat broke into chaos AGAIN, and nobody seemed to notice the bow of the ship tilting down.. down.. down.......

I squeezed my real eyes shut. "Why did Katie recommend this stupid, stupid game?! Now I can't get out!"

In a flash, I felt like I was opening my eyes. Somehow, I saw the Blue Heron, with all the animals crowded on it, like I was in the game. Along with the menu! But this was real. Like it was in the real world. What was going on? My palms started sweating. "Wait..." i thought, and looked down at my hands. They were paws! I screamed and leaped backwards. After I calmed down, i realized many other animals-or that's what they looked like-were doing (almost) the same thing as I just did.

"Great" i said out loud.. "I'm stuck in this game, and i'm on a sinking ship. What could get worse?" That's when it set in. I had a full-on panic attack. "I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna dieieieiee!" I cried and collapsed on the wood floor of the Heron. Other animals seemed to have disappeared. When I looked back up. they were gone. I rubbed my eyes and looked around. "Hello?" I said and was instantly whisked overboard by who-knows-what. I screamed and fell over the side of the ship, plopping into the water. Desperately, i tried to paddle to the surface, but obviously a rabbit's build is not at good as a human's for swimming. I sadly sank down, down, down. As I ran out of breath, everything went dark.

When I woke back up again, I was surprised to see humans surrounding me in a very bright, mostly white room. They didn't seem to notice I was awake. "welmah dalh en beh oakey??" "weh dent moh msis wrere sar wey" I had no idea what in the world they were saying. So I fell back asleep.

When I woke up again people in white coats and masks were crowding me. I screamed and they jumped backwards. They started talking and I could understand them. They said I had stuck my head in an overflowing bowl of water after pressing my face to the computer screen. I would have drowned if my mother hadn't come into my room at that moment.

Naturally, I was shocked by this. And then it all fell into place. Animal Jam was trying to get rid of nonmembers. That meant they had to get rid of the nonmember players too, according to them. So maybe they hypnotized everyone? It still didn't make any sense to me, but even though it was pretty scary, I decided not to give it too much thought.

When I got home from the hospital, my mother strictly said to NEVER go on Animal Jam again, ever. I tried calling Katie on Skype, she still couldn't answer, of course, because she was still offline.

-Time skip to the next first day of school-

My parents seemed to be hiding something, but I didn't really notice that much. I asked one of Katie's friends where Katie was and her friend looked distraught. "Didn't you hear? She drowned, Naomi. She drowned. So did Max. And Parker. And Alexis. Didn't you look at the news?"