Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Welcome Back to Gardenview!
Today was the day. It was the day I've been longing for a while now. Not only was it because I had just become an adult male yesterday, but also because I had just graduated, and it was the summer before college. Tonight I was going to sneak into my favorite childhood spot. The one and only Gardenview Educational Center and Museum! It was enormous, with multiple floors and distinct themes. One of the floors was a space theme, another was dedicated to arts and crafts, and one was a giant library. It even had giant aquariums as one of the floors! I have always wondered how they had gotten everything in there. It was a one-of-a-kind place, to be honest. They even had their own toon characters come to life! My family and I would always go have fun there every weekend, ever since I was three years old. When the place shut down out of nowhere, after a couple of years of going there, I was so devastated. As everyone in my family was waiting for the check, since we went out to dinner after my graduation, I began to reminisce about the day I found out I couldn't go to my favorite hangout spot anymore.
"What do you mean by 'Gardenview' has shut down?" I was starting to tear up.
"Honey, we don't know, but we heard it on the news." My mom touched my shoulder with a gentle and caring hand.
"But...But I wanna see Goob, and Astro, and Vee, and Sprout. And...And Glisten was going to show me something fun." I was trying to get through my sentence in between sobs.
"It's okay, bud." My dad softly smiled. "Life will treat you unfairly, but we have to move on and be excited for the future. How about we go get some ice cream?"
I felt defeated. "Oh..okay."
Of course, I was five years old, and to be honest, throughout the years up until now, I never let go of the dreams of going back there. The chatter of my family and extended family pulled me out of my thoughts.
"Is everyone ready to go?" My dad looked around at everyone as they all stood up.
There were a bunch of murmurs of agreement to his question. As always, everyone was doing their long goodbyes outside of the damn restaurant. That's when my favorite cousin, Pheobe, came up to me.
"Congrats, cuz." She smiled at me with the goofiest grin.
"Thanks, Pheobs." I softly smiled at her.
"So, when are you gonna tell them?" Phoebe playfully elbowed me with a mischievous smile.
I froze for a second before I could say anything. My cousin laughed at my reaction.
"It's okay, Zach. You have time, you'll get there eventually." Phoebe placed a reassuring and gentle hand on my shoulder.
"Thanks." I sighed with a smile.
"Zach, are you ready?" My dad walked over to me with his signature smile, and my mom was in tow of him.
"Yeah." I faked a very convincing smile.
"See you at my graduation party in a couple of weeks!" Phoebe waved goodbye while heading over to her parents.
I wish I could see her sooner rather than later. My close family all piled into the fancy family car that my dad had brought out of the two garages we had. We drove off back towards the house.
When we arrived at our fancy and big house, I heavily sighed as I got out. Trudging upstairs in my cap and gown, with my diploma in hand, I opened the door to my room and placed my phone on its charger. While I was beginning to change out of my cap and gown and the outfit I had on underneath, my parents came to my door and knocked on it. I knew it was them because they knock on it more softly than my younger brother does.
"Come in," I responded kind of quietly.
My mom and dad came into my room with smiles on their faces.
"Congrats, son. We wanted to give you something as a reward for not only graduating, but also being the valedictorian for your class of 2019." My dad looked pretty excited.
"Here you go, sweetie!" My mom handed me a small box.
Upon opening it, I was surprised to see keys to a brand new car, and a black and gold credit card with my name engraved on it!
"Those keys are to a new 2019 Range Rover Sport, and you can use that credit card this summer whenever you want!" My dad's smile widened with pride.
"Thank you guys so much!" I hugged both of my parents.
"You're welcome, honey." My mom hugged me again. "We're going to be heading to bed, see you in the morning.'
Both of my parents then left my room, while I just stared at my graduation gift in awe. When I finally snapped out of my trance, I checked the time on my phone. It was 10 PM, and they usually went to bed at 10:30 PM. With a sigh, I got out of the outfit from earlier and decided to take a shower in my bathroom before going out to the abandoned building.
While showering, my mind started to fill with doubts about this whole thing.
What if the building is already torn down?
What if you get caught sneaking out?
What if..
I shook the negative thoughts out of my mind that were crowding out my confidence. I wanted, no, needed to know if everyone was alright after all of these years. The years in between the center's shutdown and now, that building has been standing there, forgotten by everyone, for some reason. This was my chance to find out why.
After rinsing and drying, I followed my daily skincare routine. Once I was done, I put on the new outfit I had received yesterday for my birthday. It consisted of: a white strawberry button-up shirt, a space-themed navy V-neck pullover sweater, a pair of khaki shorts, a pair of navy shoes, a pair of white socks, a custom-made silver bracelet with a tiny handheld mirror charm on it, and a silver necklace with a heart on it. I also decided to pack a small backpack with what I thought I needed. The list included: my phone charger with a portable charger, the charger cube just in case, a flashlight, my wallet with the new card, a med kit, some snacks, a face mask for protection, my headphones, a lockpick, and a crowbar.
Checking the time on my phone again, the time now reads 10:45 PM.
It was go time.
Placing my keys and phone into one of my shorts pockets, placed the backpack over one of my shoulders and quietly made my way to the front door. I didn't want to make so much noise with the garage that was connected to the house, but that meant that I needed to turn off the alarm. Luckily, I knew the code. 3, 6, 4, 5, 0. Pressing the buttons, the keypad read: ALARM OFF.
"Yes!" I whisper-yelled to myself.
I opened and closed the door with swift silence and then made my way towards the driveway. To my surprise, my new car was just sitting in the driveway. Entering the car, I pushed the ignition switch button, and the car purred to life. I moved the gear shift into reverse and backed out of the driveway.
My nerves were all over the place as I was getting closer to the abandoned educational center. I glanced over at the GPS that was built into the car. Only like twelve minutes away from my destination. Turning onto what seemed like an abandoned road, I had found an overgrown, small sign that I could kind of read. It read: "-den Park This Way" with a faded arrow. After a few minutes, I found the grand entrance to Gardenview Park. To be honest, I had forgotten about the train station that went from the entrance of the park to the center itself. However, I did have very high doubts that the train would still be running after all this time. Before I decided to put my car in park, I decided to let my eyes wander around a bit, to get a good handle on my surroundings. That's when they landed on this other small sign that read: "Center Staff Parking" with an arrow pointing to the left.
"Thank the stars that I don't have to walk so far then." I chuckled to myself.
Backing out of the general population parking space, I then headed in the direction of the staff parking lot. There were some turns here and there before I finally made it to the education center itself. I easily found a space to park my car in what used to be the staff lot. Quickly grabbing my bag, I hopped out of my brand new present, and then locked it behind me when I double checked that I had everything still.
The staff entrance loomed before me, a plain metal door that had once been pristine white but was now covered in years of grime, rust spots, and creeping vines. My heart hammered against my ribcage as I approached it, each step feeling both too fast and too slow at the same time. The moonlight cast long shadows across the overgrown pathway, and I could hear the distant chirping of crickets mixed with the occasional hoot of an owl somewhere in the darkness behind me.
I reached out with a slightly trembling hand and grasped the cold metal handle. Please be open, please be open, I thought to myself as I pulled down on it.
The handle moved, but the door didn't budge.
Locked.
"Of course it is," I muttered under my breath, letting out a long sigh that seemed to echo in the quiet night air.
I slipped my backpack off my shoulder, the weight of it suddenly feeling heavier than it had moments before. Unzipping it with fumbling fingers, whether from nerves or excitement, I couldn't tell, I rummaged through the contents until my hand closed around the slim metal lockpick set I'd brought along. I felt a flush of embarrassment creep up my neck as I pulled it out. Here I was, an eighteen-year-old who had just graduated as valedictorian, about to break into an abandoned building like some kind of criminal.
But this wasn't just any building. This was Gardenview. This was home, in a way that even my actual house had never quite managed to be.
I knelt in front of the door, positioning the flashlight from my bag so it illuminated the keyhole. My hands were steadier now, muscle memory from YouTube tutorials I'd watched "just in case" taking over. The tension wrench went in first, applying just the right amount of pressure. Then came the pick itself, carefully feeling for each pin inside the lock mechanism.
One pin set. Then another. Then-
Click.
The sound was so satisfying that I couldn't help but grin to myself. I stood up, gathered my things, and shouldered my backpack once more. This was it. After thirteen years of wondering, of dreaming, of remembering, I was finally going back inside Gardenview.
I pushed the door open slowly, half-expecting it to creak like something out of a horror movie. Instead, it swung open smoothly, as if it had been oiled recently. That should have been my first clue that something was different, but I was too focused on what lay beyond the threshold to really process it.
I stepped inside and-
"What the...?"
My jaw dropped open in complete shock. Instead of the pitch-black darkness I had been expecting, instead of having to immediately pull out my flashlight to see anything at all, the entire interior was bathed in warm, gentle light. Overhead fluorescent fixtures hummed softly, casting their glow across the hallway before me. The lights were on. Actually on. Not flickering, not dim, but fully, completely, impossibly on.
How is this possible? My mind raced through explanations. Maybe the building was still connected to the power grid? But that didn't make sense. Why would they keep paying for electricity in an abandoned building for over a decade? Maybe it was solar panels? But I hadn't seen any outside. Maybe someone else was here? That thought sent a small chill down my spine, but also a spark of excitement. Maybe I wasn't the only one who couldn't let go of this place.
I closed the staff entrance door behind me, listening as it clicked shut with a finality that made my adventure feel suddenly very real. There was no turning back now. Well, technically, there was, but I had come too far to chicken out at this point.
The hallway stretched out before me, and I started walking slowly, taking everything in. The walls were painted in those cheerful, bright colors I remembered; yellows and blues and greens that were meant to make children feel welcome and excited. There were still posters on the walls, educational ones about recycling, reading, and being kind to others. They were faded now, their edges curling away from the wall, but they were still there. Still hanging on, just like my memories.
My footsteps echoed softly against the linoleum floor as I made my way down the corridor. The air smelled...different from what I expected. Not musty or moldy like an abandoned building should smell. Instead, there was a faint scent of something almost like vanilla and old paper, mixed with that distinctive smell that all museums and educational centers seem to have: a combination of cleaning products, air conditioning, and hundreds of people passing through.
As I rounded the corner, my breath caught in my throat. There it was. The gift shop.
I remembered this place so vividly, it almost hurt. The gift shop had been positioned right on the main floor, and next to Dandy's Shop and Dyle's Shop. It was strategically placed here so that every visitor would have to pass by it on their way in and out. It had been filled with plushies of all the toon characters, coloring books, educational toys, Gardenview-branded clothing, and all sorts of other merchandise that I had begged my parents to buy me on countless occasions.
I walked toward it slowly, almost reverently. The entrance was still open; there had never been a door, just a wide archway with "Gardenview Gift Shop" written above it in that distinctive, playful font that brought back a flood of memories. I could see inside from where I stood. Shelves still lined the walls, though many of them were empty now. There were still some items scattered about, a few dusty plushies here, some fallen merchandise there. It looked frozen in time, like everyone had just walked away one day and never came back.
Which, I supposed, was exactly what had happened.
I tore my gaze away from the gift shop, reminding myself that I had come here for a reason. I wanted to explore the entire center, to see all the floors I remembered. The space floor with its planets and stars. The arts and crafts area, where I had made so many terrible drawings that my parents had dutifully hung on the refrigerator. The library with its towering shelves. The aquarium floor has its mesmerizing tanks of colorful fish. The arcade floor had a huge arcade, and it also housed the studio for Vee's Game Show.
But to get to any of those places, I needed to find the elevator.
I remembered it being somewhere on this main floor, but the exact location was fuzzy in my memory. I had been so small back then, and everything had seemed so much bigger. I started walking, my eyes scanning the area, looking for that familiar set of silver elevator doors.
As I passed by the gift shop entrance again, I paused. I could explore in there first, maybe find some of those plushies I had always wanted. It would only take a minute, and then I could-
That's when I heard it.
A sound. A definite, unmistakable sound of something moving.
It came from deep within the gift shop, from somewhere behind the shelves and displays. It wasn't a loud sound, more like a soft shuffling, the sound of something being carefully moved or someone trying very hard to be quiet.
My heart rate immediately kicked up several notches. Someone else was here. Or...something else was here.
Every rational part of my brain was screaming at me to leave, to get out, to go back to my car and forget this whole crazy idea. But the part of me that had spent thirteen years wondering about this place, the part of me that had never let go of those childhood dreams, that part was stronger.
I had to know.
I stepped into the gift shop, my footsteps deliberately soft now. The lighting was dimmer in here than in the hallway, with only every other overhead light working. It created pockets of shadow between the shelves, making it hard to see clearly into the depths of the store.
"Hello?" I called out softly, immediately feeling stupid for announcing my presence. "Is someone there?"
The shuffling sound stopped immediately. Complete silence fell over the gift shop, broken only by the quiet hum of the lights and my own breathing, which sounded embarrassingly loud in my ears.
I moved deeper into the shop, weaving between shelves that were still stocked with dusty merchandise. A rack of t-shirts. A display of pencils and erasers. A shelf of those educational toys that were supposed to make learning fun. Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust, untouched for years.
Except...
I froze.
There, in the back corner of the gift shop, behind a stack of boxes that looked like they had once contained merchandise, I saw something move. Something blue. Something that definitely wasn't just a shadow or my imagination playing tricks on me.
My breath caught in my throat as I took a careful step closer, then another. The blue thing shifted again, and I caught a glimpse of what looked like...a crescent shape?
No. It couldn't be.
I moved around the stack of boxes, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat, and then-
There he was.
Peeking around the edge of the boxes, partially hidden but clearly visible in the dim light, was a toon. Not a person in a costume. Not an animatronic. A real, actual, living toon. He was exactly as I remembered from my childhood, a blue crescent moon with a gentle, sleepy expression. His body was wrapped in what looked like a soft blanket, and his eyes, those large, expressive cartoon eyes, were wide with what I could only describe as fear.
"Astro?" The name fell from my lips in barely more than a whisper.
It was him. It was really him. One of my favorite toons from when I was a kid. Astro, the sleepy moon character who had always been so calm and gentle, had read stories to children in the library area and helped them feel safe when they were scared of the dark.
For a moment, we just stared at each other. I was an eighteen-year-old human who had just broken into an abandoned building. He, a toon who shouldn't exist, who should have been nothing more than a childhood memory.
Then Astro's eyes widened even further, and he bolted.
"Wait!" I shouted, all attempts at being quiet forgotten. "Wait, please! I'm not going to hurt you!"
But Astro was already moving, his blanket trailing behind him as he darted out from behind the boxes with surprising speed for someone who always seemed so sleepy and slow-moving in my memories. He was heading toward the front of the gift shop, toward the exit, toward freedom.
I didn't think. I just reacted. My legs carried me forward, chasing after him, my backpack bouncing against my shoulders as I ran. I couldn't let him get away. I couldn't lose this chance. After thirteen years of wondering what had happened to everyone here, I finally had an answer right in front of me, and I wasn't about to let it slip through my fingers.
"Astro, please!" I called out as I ran, dodging around displays and shelves. "I just want to talk! I used to come here when I was a kid! Remember? I'm not here to hurt anyone!"
But Astro wasn't listening. Or maybe he was listening and just didn't believe me. Either way, he kept running, his small form moving with desperate urgency through the gift shop. He knocked over a display of keychains in his haste, sending them scattering across the floor with a clatter that seemed deafening in the quiet building.
I was gaining on him. My longer legs gave me an advantage, even though he clearly knew this place better than I did. We were almost at the entrance of the gift shop now, almost at that wide archway that led back out to the main hallway.
Just a little closer, I thought. Just a few more steps and maybe I could-
Astro's blanket.
It happened so fast. One moment, he was running, his blanket flowing behind him like a cape. The next moment, his foot caught on the trailing edge of the fabric. I watched in what felt like slow motion as he stumbled, his arms pinwheeling as he tried to catch his balance. But it was of no use. The blanket tangled around his legs, and he went down hard, landing on the floor right at the threshold of the gift shop entrance with a soft "oof!" that would have been comical under different circumstances.
I skidded to a stop just a few feet away from him, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath. For a moment, I just stood there, hands on my knees, gulping in air. Then I remembered why I had been running in the first place.
"Are you okay?" I asked, genuine concern flooding through me as I took a cautious step closer.
Astro was lying on the floor, his blanket twisted around him, looking dazed. He turned his head to look up at me, and I saw his expression shift from confusion to fear in an instant. He tried to scramble backward, but the blanket kept him tangled up.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," I said quickly, holding up both hands in what I hoped was a non-threatening gesture. I slowly lowered myself down to a crouch, trying to make myself seem less intimidating. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. Are you hurt? That was a pretty hard fall."
Astro stared at me with those wide, expressive eyes, his whole body tense. He looked like he was trying to decide whether to believe me or to keep trying to escape. His mouth opened slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but no words came out. He just looked...startled. Scared. Confused.
My heart ached seeing him like this. This wasn't how I remembered Astro at all. The Astro from my childhood had been calm and gentle, always ready with a soft smile and a soothing word. This Astro looked like he had been through something terrible, like he had learned to be afraid.
"I'm not here to hurt anyone," I said again, speaking slowly and softly, the way you might talk to a frightened animal. "My name is Zach. I used to come here all the time when I was little. You probably don't remember me. I was just one of thousands of kids who visited. But I remember you. You were always one of my favorites."
I stayed crouched where I was, not moving any closer, giving him space. My backpack felt heavy on my shoulders, and I was suddenly very aware of how I must look to him, a stranger who had broken into his home in the middle of the night, chasing him through the building.
"I just..." I continued, trying to find the right words. "I just wanted to see this place again. I wanted to know what happened. Why did Gardenview close? Where did everyone go? Are you...Are you all still here?"
Astro continued to stare at me, his expression unreadable. The silence stretched between us, broken only by the humming of the lights overhead and my own slightly ragged breathing.
I waited, hoping that he would say something, anything. Hoping that I hadn't just ruined my one chance to get answers by scaring him half to death.
The moment hung in the air between us, fragile and uncertain, as I knelt there on the floor of the abandoned Gardenview Educational Center and Museum, face to face with a living toon who shouldn't exist, waiting to see what would happen next.