I do not own Loud House. All rights reserved to Nickelodeon.
Ten years ago
Sid could very well remember that tragic day. She can fully remember that it was a dreary morning with thick clouds covering the sky and raining with no hint of stopping.
On days like these, when she had nothing to do or couldn't visit Ronnie Anne due to her and her brother visiting their dad for today. There was nothing more than what Sid like to do than to just sit down on the living room couch and read one of her animal books, which she recalls was about the wonderful life of chameleons and other reptiles.
While she was happily busy reading her book, her dad was out at work in the subways, while her mother is in her room working on some paperwork on the bed. Then finally we come to her younger sister: Adelaide, who is plopped down in front of the TV watching her new favorite program that was called: Amanda The Adventurer.
The show was a young children's program that's very heavily inspired by Dora The Explorer, and Sid does mean heavily for it had the exact same gimmick of a girl and animal friend, talking to the audience while simulating a point and click computer game. Yet, despite the obvious similarities, the show somehow became a instant hit just after a few days it first began airing.
Sid never got hooked on it since she was way too old for it and she pretty much figured that Adelaide would feel the same thing, but to Sid's great astonishment, she instead got hooked on it and always tuned into it once the show started. You might as well forget about watching something else at that time for she will take the remote right out of your hand and flip the channel, and good luck trying to gain her attention because once that intro plays, she goes into this trance like state and will not make any movement or sound. A zombie apocalypse could be happening at the time with one rotting corpse feasting on her brain, but she will absolutely not budge, hell Sid was a hundred percent positive that Adelaide's zombified self wouldn't even move from the spot just as long as that show was playing.
It. It was rather very odd, not to mention creepy.
Anyhow on that day's episode; Amanda along with her best, sheep friend Wooly were throwing a surprise party for their friends in the middle of a dark, murky swamp. There was a long table with a white table cloth in the middle of a island with colorful balloons tied to the dancing chairs that had eyes. Currently Amanda was asking the audience on what type of present should they give their friends with the choices of either: a baby alligator, a friendly snake that looked rather poisonous, or a nice yellow flower.
While not really listening to the show, Sid thought it was rather very odd to have a birthday party in a murky swamp, but who knows, maybe her friend is a alligator or some other animal who lives in a swamp.
Sid then had some important business to attend to in the bathroom. She was only gone for a couple minutes, but when she finally returned from the bathroom, Adelaide was gone and the door was wide opened. Weird. Adelaide would never leave while in the middle of her show. Perhaps she had something to share with Carl. She'll go ahead and check to make sure, but while heading for the door Sid thought that she heard Amanda saying that her chameleon book looked interesting, but she must be misunderstanding for most likely it could just be that one of the characters on the show has brought a book about chameleons to.
Heading out of her apartment to catch up with her sister, Sid has no idea that she would never see her sister again.
After that unexpected tragic day. Sid's family was sent into absolute chaos as they immediately sent out word to both the police along with all of their friends, family, and neighbors that their youngest child was missing.
Everyone joined in on the search for Adelaide. They looked around the apartment building, city blocks, subway tunnels, various locations in the city, even out into the suburbs, but there was simply no sign of Adelaide anywhere; by all definitions, she has completely disappeared off the face of the Earth.
Many sent their condolences to the grieving family, saying on how she would turn up one day or how they shouldn't give up hope. The family gave them their thanks, but everyone could tell that this strange occurrence took a very serious tole on all of the Chang's.
Sid could very well remember on how her parents became a shadow of their former selves. They always did things slow, rarely smiled, and sometimes they just didn't have enough energy to go to work, but what was the most damaging was that Sid has caught them a couple of times drinking alcoholic beverages.
Those years were very hard for her as well. Considering she was the one who saw her sister last, Sid couldn't help but put some blame on herself for Adelaide's mysterious disappearance. Perhaps if she didn't have to use the bathroom at that precised moment, she could still have her little sister right by her side.
But she is determined to find out on what had happened that day. She needed the much needed closure to at last bring down her everlasting guilt. It was thanks with the help from Ronnie Anne that Sid was able to find out that there were several other disappearances involving young children who have all watched Amanda The Adventurer.
Carefully reading the articles, Sid uneasily discovered that those children have also went into a trance like state whenever the show came on, it was as if they were all under hypnosis, many parents reported. After reading these articles, it was very clear that old show is somehow tied to Adelaide's disappearance. It sounds strange and absurd, but it's a definite big lead that Sid isn't going to let go so easily, she'll have to watch the show herself in order to find more clues.
Unfortunately for Sid though. The show itself had went off the air only after it's first year on TV and trying to find it online is virtually impossible. It wasn't even out on DVD or on any streaming service, instead the company decided to go completely old school by releasing Amanda episodes on only VHS tapes, which was just great for unless you went to a pawn shop, it was virtually impossible to find any VHS tapes these days, not to mention a VHS player.
It had definitely taken Sid many months to find a shop that sells Amanda tapes, but today; she has finally found three of those tapes and even better. She does indeed in fact has a VHS player courtesy of her dad, who used to play old Disney movies for her and Adelaide on Friday nights.
Having obtaining these items, Sid patiently waits for a night when both of her parents are gone, so that way, they won't walk in on her watching a preschool children's show.
Luckily for her though, Sid didn't have to wait very long for on a Saturday night; they both went out for a movie, giving Sid a perfect opportunity to begin her investigation. She waits till their car drives away before moving into her room, where a early 2000's TV is neatly set up with the VHS player hooked up on the bottom, while three Amanda tapes laid neatly stacked on her bedside table.
Grabbing ahold of the top one; "Fun In The Kitchen". Sid pulls out the black rectangular tape with the blue top and stared at it determinedly. "Alright Adelaide. Time for me to finally find out what happened to you all those years ago."
Turning on the TV that at first displayed nothing but white static, but then quickly switched into a blue screen after turning on the VHS player. Sid slowly placed the tape into the player then stepped back and watched as a logo of a pink outline of a mouse with Hameln written on it in balloon words appeared with cheery music in the background.
The Hameln logo slowly faded away and is swiftly replaced with the colorful logo of the show title with a shiny red apple with both Amanda and Wooly happily waving to the audience from both sides as cheerful piano music played in the background.
The intro was rather short as the title slowly faded and the show open up to a scene of both Amanda and Wooly standing happily in a kitchen with a dancing fridge and oven with eyes in the background. Looking to the audience with a smile, Amanda happily waves to Sid. "Hello there young adventurers. I'm Amanda."
Waving to the audience as well, Wooly has the same friendly smile. "I'm Wooly."
"And welcome to Amanda The Adventurer!" They both exclaimed in glee.
"You are just in time for we are going to make a apple pie today." Walking over to the counter, Amanda takes a whiff of the shiny apples in the bowl. "I can't wait to make it, but I need some help locating the flour. Do you know where I can find it?"
Okay there was nothing yet, she wasn't in a trance or felt anything weird, but that doesn't mean that Sid was wrong about her theory. She'll watch this whole thing until she comes across something that's worth investigating, even if she has to sit through these childish questions, where come to think about it, the character should've been moving on by now. Perhaps she should fast forward until finally coming across a clue.
Reaching for the fast forward button, Sid is suddenly stopped by Amanda's voice. "Don't touch that."
"Wait, what did she just say?" Glancing back up to the screen, Amanda's smile is clearly twitching from the amount of waiting she's enduring. Must be some joke the animators placed in, they definitely went into detail as her mouth is really twitching now, it almost looks like that she was about to snap if it weren't for Wooly rushing over to the pantry and pulled out the flour.
"Look Amanda! I found it! We can start work on our apple pie now."
Turning to him in joy, Amanda cheerfully clenches the air. "Good work Wooly. You really helped out." Suddenly glancing back over to the audience, Amanda frowns and spoke in a mutter. "Unlike you."
Well that was a bit harsh to say. How in the world did they allow that to be in the show?
Amanda and Wooly now proceed to bring out more ingredients throughout the kitchen for the apple pie, once they were all done, Amanda then does the alarming sight of holding a sharp kitchen knife. "Let's chop something up now. Don't I look like a pirate with this? This could be my swinging sword."
Then to more of Sid's shock, Amanda began to dangerously swing the knife around like some maniac. How could the censors allow this to happen in a kids show? A kid would definitely try to replicate on what they just saw and it would lead to them either severely hurting someone or more likely themselves.
"Amanda!" Wooly scolded. "Don't be playing with knifes! You could cut yourself." Turning to the audience, Wooly raises his hoof. "Remember to always have adult supervision when dealing with knifes."
At least someone is being responsible in the kitchen. Sid could tell however by the glare Wooly is receiving from Amanda is that she didn't like being told on what to do. "Now then. Let's start cooking shall we."
Placing the pie in the oven, Wooly now explained about kitchen safety and how to always have an adult with you when cooking in the oven, right beside him Amanda is very uninterested as she glared down to the floor as if she has heard the same speech a thousand times before.
The oven at last dings; signalling for the two that the pie is at last finished. "Oh boy. I can't wait to eat it." Amanda exclaimed.
"Me to. We just need to wait for it to cool down." Wooly instructed after placing on some oven mitts
"Let's just take it out."
"You need oven mitts first. If you grab it without them, you'll burn your hands."
Suddenly getting angry, Amanda snaps at Wooly "Why don't I shove you into the o-," the tape suddenly cuts into static for a short period of time, when it faded the two are now sitting at the kitchen table, happily eating the pie. "This is very good pie Wooly."
Showing visible fear, Wooly avoids any eye contact with Amanda, instead he focuses all of his attention towards his pie piece. "It sure is Amanda."
"Don't eat too much now. You may become a large sheep." Laughing from her joke, Amanda then slowly turned back to the audience. "That was a very fun adventure. Make sure to come back soon and we'll enjoy our next adventure." With that the end credits began playing, showing all the names of the people who helped create this episode.
The screen then switched to a blue screen and the tape stops.
Okay, so far there was nothing indicating on a connection with Adelaide's disappearance with this show. There were definitely strange and very alarming moments that shouldn't be in a preschool kids show. Seriously; what were they thinking with that whole knife thing?
But anyway that was one tape down, now time for the next tape which was called; Shopping For A Friend. Replacing the previous tape with this one, Sid gets herself back into position as the logo and show title played once again.
This time; Amanda and Wooly are standing on a sidewalk with three dancing buildings in the background, however though Sid quickly took notice on several outlines laid randomly on the sidewalk, that very strangely looked very much like police outlines of dead bodies. Hopefully those weren't, what she was thinking of and instead they were something else completely harmless.
"Hello there adventurers." Amanda addressed. "You're just in time to help me with my small problem. You see, I'm currently trying to find a treat to give to my special friend, but I don't know which store to go. Which one do you think I should go in?"
"Well I think." Wooly began.
"I wasn't talking to you." Amanda snapped at Wooly before looking back to the audience, where just like on the previous tape, she waited for an answer with more twitching of her mouth.
"Come on, get on with it already." Sid muttered for she didn't have all night.
"Don't tell me what to do! Answer my question!" Amanda shouted with static flickering in the background, which makes Sid flinch a bit. If she was in a horror movie right now, then she could swear on her life that Amanda was actually talking to her.
But this was no time to think crazy however, she needed to focus on her investigation and for just an amusement on her earlier thoughts, Sid points to the candy store. "Go there."
"Excellent choice. My friend just loves candy."
"Your getting me a chocolate bar?" Wooly happily smiled.
"Like I said, my friend just loves candy." She repeated in joy, ignoring the now sadden Wooly. The scene then cuts to inside the store, where the two are now standing in front of three shelves of licorice, jellybeans, and chocolate bars.
"So many delicious candies to choose from. I can't make up my mind, what do you think I should get?"
"I don't know, the liquorice or something." Why exactly was she doing this? This is something that a preschooler would do, not a 22-year-old who started her first job at the veterinarians as the front desk secretary last month.
"Licorice?! Yuck! I hate licorice! Pick something else."
"Okay the jellybeans then." What was the point of even answering? And again why is she even doing this? It's not like her answers are going to change anything on the show for this isn't an interactive show like the ones on Netflix or an old TellTale game.
"Jellybeans taste funny. You're absolutely terrible at answering questions." She happily stated.
"Amanda! That's not very nice!" Wooly heavily scolded.
"Shut up Wooly." Grabbing hold of a chocolate bar from the shelf, Amanda now happily heads for the door.
"Wait Amanda. We need to pay for that." Wooly protested.
"Don't worry; this is simply borrowing. You just need to make sure that no one sees you, while also keeping an eye out for any security cameras." Ignoring whatever else Wooly had to say, Amanda left the store with the stolen candy bar much to Sid's shock.
This children's show was actually teaching kids on how to shoplift?! The thing with the knife was just as bad, but doing an actual crime with no remorse? This was something you would see in South Park or Robot Chicken. Why exactly did they let Adelaide watch this show if all it did was teach her extremely bad morals.
Then to add further insult to injury, Amanda happily went to the post office and sent out the stolen bar in the mail. "Now my friend will get his treat. I hope he doesn't mind me taking a little nibble on it." She giggled.
"We shouldn't have taken that candy bar without paying Amanda. That was a very wrong thing to do." Turning to the audience, Wooly walks over to the camera until his face covered most of the screen. "Kids. Don't do what Amanda did today. You can get into very big trouble when you steal thin-"
Cutting into sudden static, the image clears just as quickly to reveal Wooly painfully holding onto a newly formed black eye all the while Amanda glares at him, until noticing the audience is back and quickly returned to a smile. "Oh no Wooly. You must watch where your going."
Despite the pain he felt, Wooly angrily turned to Amanda. "But your the one who,"
"That's right. You should never run around in the store, you could really hurt yourself like Wooly here." She then grabs Wooly's wrist, rather tightly judging by his facial expressions. "Now if you excuse me. I need to take Wooly over to the doctor. I'll see you next time."
Without another word, she forcefully pulls Wooly away from view. Just before he completely left the frame, Sid took notice of the very scared look on him. Shortly after he left the credits played and the tape ends, leaving Sid very much confused on what exactly is this show? She doesn't remember it being so dark, true; she didn't exactly pay attention to the show when it was still airing on TV, but still; she or her parents would have definitely picked up on the inappropriate behavior and never let Adelaide watch the show again.
But now there was only one tape left and this one had really caught her attention when she finally got her hands on it. The title for it is called; "Everything Rots," which at first Sid didn't know what to make of the title, was it about the dangers of moldy food or something like that? But now after watching two of the tapes, Sid is very much becoming uneasy for there is another kind of rotting and she is very much hoping that she is dead wrong on her assumptions.
"Calm down Sid. You only have one more tape to go. Just relax yourself and watch it." Despite her self prep talk, Sid very slowly replaced the tape and just as slowly pressed play.
For this one; Amanda and Wooly are sitting on a picnic blanket in the middle of a blueberry bush field. Laid out in front of them are plates with half eaten pie pieces. "Hello again adventurers. You are just in time for our lovely picnic."
"Yummy! I love peach pie." Taking a bite out of his pie, Wooly happily chews on it until his eyes suddenly bulges open as his nose twitched. Covering it up with his hooves, he turns away in absolute disgust. "Ugh! What's that horrible stench!?"
Sniffing the bad smell herself, Amanda is just as clueless to the mystery stench. "I don't know Wooly. Do you know what it is?" She then asked Sid, who clearly saw a moldy sandwich on the bottom-right corner of the blanket.
"Gross! it's that sandwich."
"Your absolutely right. Wow! Just look at that sandwich Wooly, it's rotting away. Soon it'll be nothing but dust." Amanda happily explained.
"We should throw it away. It's making me very nauseous." Wooly remarked for he is beginning to turn a bit green around the fur.
"You know everything rots in the end; our pies, plants, animals, to even us. Do you know what the opposite of alive is?"
Sid didn't even mutter a word when Amanda spoke up again in so much joy. "Dead! That's right! We all die at the end."
Suddenly various images of dead things flash on the screen, some are skeletons and dead trees, but most are decomposing animals. These nightmarish images burned into the very much disturbed eyes of Sid. Who in the love of planet Earth thought it was a good idea to put these very disturbing imagery in a kids show!? It's even more disturbing on how Amanda is smiling after each image as if this was some fun puppet show.
"As you can see. When we all die, we become dirt, while also becoming food for the maggots and other bugs. Isn't it great on how we are still useful even after we're long gone."
"Maybe we shouldn't be discussing this Amanda. Our audience is very disturbed."
"Nonsense! She just needs to suck it up. After all; she's going to rot one day to, just like me. In fact; I can feel my body rotting away somewhere." For the last part of the sentence, Amanda sadly looked down to the ground.
Sid couldn't care less, she just wanted this nightmarish episode done with as quickly as possible. Pushing the fast forward button, she's surprised to see that it didn't work. Pushing it a couple more times, Sid kept expecting it to speed up the tape, but it didn't; instead Amanda sadly looked up to her. "I thought you were different. I thought you were my friend. Are you even my friend?"
A bitter ice cold chill breezed right through her spine, Amanda was talking to her. Somehow; the made up character is full on seeing her through the TV, just like that ghost girl from The Ring. At last the mystery on what happened to Adelaide all those years ago became very clear to her mind. This show, more specifically this character had something to do with it, the very same character who is now beginning to loose her patience.
"Answer my question." She lowly threatened.
"You don't have to answer it." Wooly reassured in worry as he knew that Amanda was loosing it.
"ANSWER MY QUESTION! ARE YOU MY FRIEND OR NOT!?" Amanda screamed while getting very close to the screen.
"No! I'm not your friend!" Springing up from her spot, Sid shuts off the TV and ejected the tape from the VHS player, where she then smashed it onto the floor.
Her mind could still not wrap around this whole revelation. A sentient children's character? It's absolutely crazy to even comprehend it in the first place. Adelaide disappeared because of this cursed show, how on Earth was she going to undo it? She was no magician or whoever else uses magic, but she needed to find out how, she will not rest until she does. After all it's for Adelaide.
"Bang!"
Jumping in surprise, Sid quickly turned around towards her bedroom window that was now open, courtesy of a long, skinny arm.
She widens her eyes as a skinny demon with lots of white dots for eyes and Amanda's hairdo came crawling into her bedroom. Opening up it's dot eyes, the demon lunged at Sid before she could even have a chance to scream or run.
Slowly opening up her eyes, Sid at first could only see whiteness all the while feeling her body dancing as well as something sharp poking into her back.
Everything eventually clears and when it did, Sid immediately wished that she couldn't see anything for what she saw is the textures of Amanda's world. She wasn't just anywhere though, she was in fact inside a butcher's shop with the said Butcher endlessly slicing into a piece of meat.
Glancing down, Sid found that she couldn't scream for she has turned into a rope of sausages. All she could really do is look around her prison in an endless dance with the other slices of meat, especially with the one across from her, who Sid strangely felt a strong connection to.