It happened all too slowly, that I remember every single last detail of the last time I ever played animal jam.
It was only a normal Saturday, and it was time for my daily Animal Jam time. I turned on my computer as always and went to Animal Jam, entering my username and password. It logged on perfectly fine as usual, and I wasn't surprised that none of my friends were on. With a sigh, I kinda just had my wolf pace around in the Jamaa Township. Without a doubt, the Township was full to the brim with other players. I put up some items on my trade, and had my wolf sit in a random corner. I knew I'd get trade requests.
Out of the whole request list for trades I got, none of them were really good at all. But then there was one trade that caught my eye. Well, not the trade items, the username of the trader. It didn't seem right, and it gave me chills when I read it out loud. "TheEyelessFox." I clicked decline and looked up his username on the find-a-jammer button. I typed in his name, but it said that the jammer wasn't found. That was weird. I shrugged, but thought nothing of it after. But then I saw him. I saw the actual Fox for this person. But it didn't have a name tag under the animal.
It came along and sat down right next to my wolf. It just... sat there, facing my animal. It had no eyes, but I assumed it was just the X eye option Animal Jam had for animals. But then I heard it. A rasping sound coming from my headphones. It sounded like whatever it was, it had ragged teeth. It was telling me who it was.
"I am The Eyeless Fox. You have deemed yourself worthy. You are the only one who can see me in Jamaa. Would you like to be friends with me?" Was what the voice said through my headphones. I looked at the screen and saw the Fox was looking directly at me, like it was gazing through the screen. It was a solid dark black. I swore it almost looked like a black aura was radiating from it.
I didn't know how to talk to the thing. I wanted to be it's friend, being the daredevil tom boy I was. I guessed the only way to talk to it was to type through my wolf. I typed yes. But when I clicked enter, there was no speech bubble. Only another voice saying yes, a voice that sounded like mine coming through my animal. I tilted my head at the screen. I didn't know how or why this was happening, but I suddenly felt unsafe. Like something was behind me, ready to take me away.
The Fox sprite suddenly had its face twist, and teeth showed. It was smiling. A buddy request was sent to me, and I accepted it, but not without hesitation. I didn't like the look of this fox, and Animal Jam was acting strange. I didn't know if it was safe or not.
I brushed it off as being to paranoid. The Eyeless Fox and I began to talk at my den. The speech bubbles had returned, for him and me. We talked for hours.
But soon it was time for me to log off for the day. We said our goodbyes and I left. I didn't think must of the weirdness of The Eyeless Fox, but I did think of him. He was mysterious, without a player card or name tag under the animal. I thought that it might've been some glitch that some Jammers got. After all, players were always finding weird glitches. But he just stayed on my mind, like he was glued there. I shuddered once or twice just thinking about his sprite. No eyes, just a body.
I did the same thing the next day. I logged onto Animal Jam, assuming everything would be just like yesterday. But as it got to the screen to choose my server, I noticed right away something wasn't right. All the servers... they were empty. No green bubbles showing how full it was, just... empty. Like every other player was avoiding the game. I didn't know if I should've continued. I tried to click the log out button, but it wouldn't log out. I tried to close the window, but nothing happened.
I sighed. I had no choice but to fully log in. So I did. The world loaded fairly quickly, and I was in the township. It was empty. Even the music was gone. I bit my lip in nervousness, I was getting a little freaked out. Then I saw him. The Eyeless Fox. No eyes, no name tag, no player card. Just the sprite. Only the sprite was different. It had grown more gruesome. I got scared, and I ran to another area. I quickly tried to unfriend him as well. But then I remembered I couldn't- he had no player card. No where to place the button to remove him from your buddy list.
He appeared in the area right after, and it looked right at me through the screen. Its lips drew back to reveal ragged, blood red teeth. Instead of eyes, in their place were two black eye sockets, with red dripping from them. It snarled at me.
"Do not try to escape me, friend." I hear from my headphones. I almost screamed as he advanced towards my wolf. Quickly as I could, I brought up the map and clicked on Deep Blue. I was turned to my shark. There was no way he could get me here. Boy, was I wrong.
The thing appeared in the water, like it was still walking on land. Its paws were flailing like it was swimming, the blood from its eyes washing into the blue waters, turning it red and sour.
"You will come with me." He said, and I tried to run again. But nothing would work, like it wasn't registering my mouse. I had no choice but to watch as my animal moved on its own, following The Eyeless Fox.
We headed back to land, we were in Appondale. I silently wondered what he had brought me here for. I watched and for a long time, nothing happened. But then I was turned into a fox, with no name tag. I gulped as I watched. My fox had colors, it was deep blue with silver patches. Then The Eyeless Fox began to guide my fox into an area that shouldn't have existed.
We entered the cave right next to the Appondale museum. Inside it was dark, and jagged rocks came up from the floor and down from the ceiling. The rocks dripped with water, or so I had thought. Instead they were dripping with blood. I shivered as we kept on going, until we finally reached the end.
"Welcome to my home." The Eyeless Fox spoke to my own. It didn't wait for my answer, it simply kept on talking.
"I wasn't always like this, dark and without eyes. I was a regular animal for a regular player. But there was a glitch, I terrible one. It was when my player was doing an Adventure. I was being chased by Phantoms. The player was suddenly logged out, but it left me still in the Adventure to fend for myself. There was nothing I could do to defend myself, and the Phantoms took me to their lair." He told me. The fox began to pace, red once again coming from the empty eye sockets.
"They took me and tortured me, cut my eyes out and destroyed them. Then they rendered me useless, never able to go on another adventure again. They do this to so many of the players, and their account would be destroyed. Then they found a way to keep one account alive, to do their bidding. That account is me." He roared, and the cave shook. I badly wanted this to end, but my mouse could do nothing.
"They freed me from the bonds of an 'account' but in exchange, they make me do their dirty work. The reason why they cut my eyes out is to have something to keep me going. They said they'd give me my eyes back when I've destroyed all of Jamaa. All of the animals who thwart their plans, win the adventures" The fox trailed off, coming close to my animal. It came so close their faces were almost touching.
"I didn't want to do this, but I just want my eyes back... I want to see again, so badly..." He whispered, so soft I could barely hear it. Then he returned to his evil state.
"I have to do this." That was all he said, when he lunged for my fox, and then the screen went black. I tried clicking, but nothing happened. Then the screen came back. My animal was gone, and in its place was a pool or red. The fox was looking right at me now, and said the words again.
"I have to do this." And then it lunged right at me, its ragged red teeth covering the whole screen. Then it just went away. The page exited by itself, leaving me in the chair, panting, trying to figure out what just happened. I shook myself and opened up another page. I went to animal jam, entered my username and password, then clicked log in.
But it didn't find an account with that username. My account had vanished from existence. The last thought I had before exiting the Animal Jam page forever, Was of The Eyeless Fox, and his sad, untold story.