10 Jul Jimmy’s Toys

Posted at 11:00h in Strange and Unexplained by CreepypastaStories.com 0 Comments

📅 Published on July 10, 2022

“Jimmy’s Toys”

Written by Raz T. Slasher
Edited by Craig Groshek and N.M. Brown
Thumbnail Art by Craig Groshek
Narrated by N/A

Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on CreepypastaStories.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed, adapted to film, television or audio mediums, republished in a print or electronic book, reposted on any other website, blog, or online platform, or otherwise monetized without the express written consent of its author(s).

🎧 Available Audio Adaptations: None Available

⏰ ESTIMATED READING TIME — 10 minutes

Rating: 10.00/10. From 3 votes.

Please wait...

When I was growing up, we had an amazing toy store in our town. It was designed to resemble a medieval castle with multiple floors and took up an enormous portion of a nearby strip mall. You wouldn’t find national toy brands like Mattel or Fisher Price there though. Instead, they catered largely to independent toy companies you’ve likely never heard of, and local craftsmen.

The toys they did have were every bit as interesting as the store itself. There were wooden toys of all kinds, handmade dolls, puzzles, board games, and even an entire floor dedicated to miniatures and model trains. The most important feature of the store was what they referred to as the, “treasure room.”

The treasure room was so important because it was tied to a special event at Jimmy’s Toys. If your parents signed you up for their birthday club, you would receive an invitation in the mail to visit it. It was always a card wishing you a happy birthday from King Jimmy and contained an invitation to the treasure room and a small metal key taped inside. Your parents would take you to the store to present your invitation and you would be ushered down to the basement level to pick out a free toy.

The key added another level to the event entirely. Each key had the chance to unlock a huge treasure chest in the middle of the room. I had no idea what was inside of the chest, nor did anyone I knew personally. There were a lot of rumors, but whatever was inside of it had to be worth a fortune!

The downside of the birthday club is that it only lasted until you were 12. In some ways I guess that makes sense, teenagers go through a lot of changes and appreciate the magic of the world around them less, but it still bummed me out. I dreaded my last trip to the glorious treasure room, knowing it would be my last.

Our little town was booming and there were new faces everywhere you looked, and many of the people you had known seemed to disappear overnight. Living so close to an air force base, that kind of thing was somewhat expected, but the older I got the more it bothered me. My little world was changing rapidly and soon my last vestige of childhood, the treasure room at Jimmy’s Toys, would disappear along with it.

The dreaded day finally came when I received my birthday card, invitation, and key from King Jimmy. With a reluctant sigh, my mother swept me away for one last magical expedition. She knew how upset I’d been, so she made it extra special that year. We got lunch at McDonald’s beforehand, and she told me we’d go to the local dairy a couple towns over for ice cream after. That did a lot to lift my spirits, but something in the back of my mind kept me from enjoying it as much as I should have.

I descended the steps into the treasure room slowly, wanting to memorize every detail so I could remember it forever. I wandered around that room with its castle wallpaper and red velvet curtains for so long both my mother and the staff were becoming impatient. Not wanting to push my luck I chose a wooden marionette crafted to look like a court jester. It seemed like a fitting parting gift at the time.

I was urged towards the giant treasure chest in the center of the room and presented my key to the staff member. She pressed a button on top of the chest and the sound of trumpets momentarily filled the room from unseen speakers. I was in shock when the key turned, and a series of clicks sounded in the now silent space. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the chest’s lid opening!

Inside the giant chest was an open space with a ladder that descended into a golden glowing light. It was only large enough for me to fit into, and the staff member explained it was an experience just for children and my mother would have to wait for my return. She was promised that it would only take 20 minutes, so she let me go.

I jumped inside that chest and climbed down the ladder as quickly as I could. When I reached the bottom, I was mesmerized by the golden light that filled the room. There was an enormous scroll on the wall in front of me that framed a gilded door. The scroll congratulated me and explained that I had been personally chosen by King Jimmy to explore the secrets of the lost treasure and would be greatly rewarded for my effort.

I rushed through the door and into the darkness beyond. Simulated torches lit up as I approached them, finding myself in what appeared to be an underground passage. My excitement peaked as I traversed the winding path. I couldn’t believe something like that existed beneath a toy store, no matter how cool the place was.

Speaking of cool, I could even feel a cold draft on my skin the farther down the path I went! When I started smelling something that my brain associated with the smell of a sewer, I was astonished. They had obviously spent a lot of time building this and had paid close attention to even the smallest details. There was no way my friends would believe me when I told them.

Eventually, the passage dead ended into a small square room. I was disappointed at first, but my excitement spiked again and quickly overshadowed it. I was here to discover the secrets of the lost treasure, so obviously there had to be something I was overlooking. I ran my hand over each wall, feeling for anything that seemed out of place. In no time at all my fingertips found a brick on one of the walls that stuck out farther than the others. With a joyous shout I pressed on it and the wall before me slid open to reveal a scroll around another gilded door.

The scroll congratulated me on completing the treacherous journey through the underground tunnels of the Kingdom. It said that the bittersweet part of every journey was that it would eventually come to an end. I found out that every child on their 12^th birthday that ventured into the treasure room was given a key that would lead them here.

It was King Jimmy’s way of giving back to the children that loved his Kingdom so much throughout the years. When I retrieved the treasure in the next room, I had to promise to never reveal its secrets in order to do my part in keeping the magic alive for others. It further explained that when I was ready, I should open the door and enter. King Jimmy was anxiously awaiting me on the other side to hand deliver my reward.

Every ounce of despair I’d had in me about this day was wiped away. I was part of something larger than myself now and it overwhelmed me with pride. It was my first big taste of the responsibilities that awaited me now that I was getting older. I took a deep breath to let that sink in before opening the door and stepping into the darkness beyond once more.

I heard the door close, and the lock clicked behind me in the darkness. I didn’t pay much attention at the time. I was too focused on what I would discover ahead. A few steps farther in and golden lights popped into existence to reveal the scene before me.

This room was nearly identical to the main treasure room above, but without all the toys. In the center of the wall in front of me sat an animatronic king upon his throne before a closed golden chest. Thinking back on it now, it reminds of the creepy King you see these days in Burger King commercials. There was something off about that strange ever-present smile that creeped me out a little.

When I approached King Jimmy, I could hear the whirling mechanisms that eventually brought him to life. He greeted me with a simple wave and his mouth moved along with a recorded message, thanking me for finding the lost treasure. He invited me closer and asked me to kneel next to the box before him.

I hurried into place, my eyes focusing on the golden chest next to me. I only looked away when I sensed movement extremely close to my head. I looked up and noticed that King Jimmy was placing a fake sword to each side of my head as the message informed me that I would now and forever be a Knight of his Kingdom. It was time for me to open the chest and claim my destiny!

When King Jimmy moved back into a neutral position and ceased to move or speak, I opened the box. I thrust my hands inside to claim my prize before my eyes registered the contents. I had submerged my hands into a foul smelling substance that had the look and consistency of warm raspberry jelly. Just as it oozed over my skin and several sets of human eyeballs fought their way to the surface, I heard a door open next to King Jimmy’s throne.

A man dressed in a dirty old Court Jester costume emerged and yanked me to my feet. I could smell the same foul stench from the treasure chest all over him. Still in his grip, he forced me into his arms and carried me into the room behind the throne. The bells on his costume made a dull jingle with every step he took, as if many of the bells were broken or somehow prevented from making their usual sound.

As shocked as I was, I knew this had to be part of the lost treasure story. Finding the treasure had been too easy, so surely there had to be some final challenge. Maybe the Court Jester character was trying to steal King Jimmy’s throne?

The inside of this room looked more like a dungeon cell, solidifying my belief that this was part of the experience. I was shoved up into a child sized cage that hung from the ceiling and locked within. I stayed silent and carefully scanned my surroundings. Other than the way I’d been brought in, I could see the edge of what I thought was a trap door in the floor below me.

I also noticed a normal dungeon cell in one of the corners. Inside of it was another animatronic, dressed and painted to look just like a Court Jester. I found it weird that they would have an animatronic and a real person playing the same character, but it did make sense that there would be an actual person down here in case something went wrong.

The man spun my cage around slowly, his eyes never looking away. I noticed some of the raspberry jelly stuff all over his big scraggly salt and pepper beard. Had he been eating it? Gross! He started mumbling something I couldn’t completely hear. It was only the last line that became audible to me. “I’ll show them who the real king is around here.” AH HA! The Court Jester was a usurper to King Jimmy’s throne! I’d read about a situation like this in one of my dad’s old fantasy books. The plot was thickening!

As I slowly revolved in my little cage, I went back to scanning the room. Back at the dead end I had to search for a hidden brick to get out. There had to be some sort of trigger to release me from my confinement and a way past the Court Jester to the trapdoor. As I scanned, the man slid open a panel I hadn’t noticed yet. Something fell out of it that he quickly began stuffing back in with his foot. All I caught was what looked like a kid’s light up shoe turning on and off every time he kicked at it.

He stepped back and closed the panel. When he turned around, I saw a big knife in his left hand. It was also covered in that terrible raspberry jelly stuff. He began to laugh as he crept closer. He must have walked right into a sensor though because the animatronic version of the Court Jester suddenly came to life. The bells attached to it jingled furiously. A recorded voice filled the room as it’s mechanical mouth moved in rhythm

The animatronic Court Jester informed us to remember the promise we made and that it was no laughing matter. If we destroyed the magic for other children, we’d wind up in the dungeon just like him.

The man stared at the animatronic for a moment, and then refocused on me. It finally set in that whatever was happening right now was definitely not part of the show. I began rattling the cage and screaming as loud as my little lungs would allow. Still, the man crept closer, the dull jingle punctuating each of his steps.

I kicked out at him from between the cage bars when he made it close enough to me, my continued shrieks for help echoing in the small space. The blade of the knife scraped my left leg and I winced; the pain was immediate. Luck was with me down in the dungeon that day, though.

My right foot connected with the hand that held the knife, knocking it halfway across the room. When he moved to pick it up, I scanned the cage one more time in desperation. I shifted my body as I looked, finally finding a small safety latch beneath me.

I pulled the latch as hard as I could and the bottom of my cage swung down, plummeting me towards the trap door below. My body hit it hard enough to break it open and I tumbled down a couple steps. I laid on my back, staring up through the broken trap door as I tried to catch my breath. I hurt everywhere, but instinctively I knew that nothing was broken.

I was getting ready to pull myself to my feet and make a run for it when the man’s face peered down at me from above. He slowly descended the stairs with his dull jingles, pointing the knife in my direction. I sat up and started crawling backwards as fast as I could to get some space between us. A wall ten feet back stopped me in my tracks.

Just as the man moved to hover over me and bring the knife down, a police officer burst through the door I hadn’t noticed was next to me. He tackled the deranged Court Jester to the ground and cuffed him with the help of another officer that ran in behind him. A third officer arrived in the room and carefully picked me up. He rushed me through another long and winding corridor like the one that had led to the throne room, and out into the store itself where the store manager was waiting next to my frantic mother.

When the ambulance arrived, I was wrapped in a warm blanket and checked out by the paramedics. I ended up with a lot of bruising, a minor concussion, and a nasty gash on my left leg. I was taken to the hospital for overnight observation and 17 stitches.

The police met us at the hospital, and I answered every question to the best of my ability. We found out that the man who attacked me was an ex-employee of Jimmy’s Toys. He’d been with the store since it first opened and was fired a couple months ago for drinking on the job. He then assaulted the manager and several employees before fleeing the scene. They’d been unable to find him, until now.

A week later, a breaking news bulletin interrupted my Saturday morning cartoon programming. It turns out that the remains of several children and their families were found in the sub-basement of Jimmy’s Toys. The news shocked our entire community.

Jimmy’s Toys hung around for another year before the grisly events, and our town’s first Walmart, put them out of business. The entire strip mall went under shortly after. As you can imagine, the story quickly became Urban Legend material. Teenagers and Urban explorers alike took to the tunnels below with their cameras and a legend was born.

They say that if you descend into the tunnels beneath the treasure room you will find King Jimmy and his Court Jester down there waiting for you. Their animatronic bodies will come to life and chase you all the way to the store’s front entrance. If you’re too slow, they’ll drag you back to the dungeon and torture you forever.

The Castle for Jimmy’s Toys still stands there to this day, enticing those who pass by to come inside and discover the secrets of the lost treasure.