My feet hit the floor with a thud, the only sounds I could hear were a soft dripping from water somewhere in the distance and my own breath resonating in the nothingness. I fumbled around for a moment before I finally was able to find my flashlight attached to my belt in the darkness. After finally getting a grasp I ran my thumb across the "NM" engraved into the side. It stood for Nathaniel Miller, my name. I gave it a soft click and a beam of light rushed forth filling the area I pointed to with luminescence. As it happened, the exact thing I was looking for was presented to me the moment I turned on the light. My flashlight shown on the words:
Avalon's Toil
I had only heard about this place in stories and urban legends, the fact that the words confirming its existence were in front of me now brought a smile to my face.
"I found it," I said to myself. After years of following old cryptic letters and buried videos it was actually in front of him. I pride myself on being an 'urban explorer' but in actuality this is my first real form of urban exploration. Everywhere else I had gone were places many other people had already explored and vetted to the point that they were merely abandoned walls with no real significance. This is my discovery, mine, there is great potential that no one had been in this building since the park sank back in the 80's. I shined my flashlight around the area, it was filled with old tattered propaganda advertising different attractions or events going on at the park, and rusted turnstiles that no longer provide adequate security.
This all started as most things do nowadays, as a tiktok trend. Back in 2019 a video surfaced that quickly gained traction entitled "The fall of 'Avalon's Toil'." As with most abandoned amusement parks, no one had really heard of the park nor had mentioned anything about it in almost 40 years since the place disappeared. The video featured an older man talking about the last day of the park, for the most part it was rather normal. The park had good attendance, good attractions, people enjoyed themselves; but what the man said that made it so special were the events. The park was known for hosting these life-changing events that would allow people to experience incredible things or earn incredible prizes. The man even said that one patron had won 1 million dollars back in the day! According to him, on the last day of the park being open they hosted a new event known as 'Arthur's Court' and had promised it would be the biggest prize they had given out yet. Apparently there was such a large appeal for the event that nearly 300,000 people tried to attend that day. The man, who identified himself as Rodger Jameson, said that he was in attendance that day but ended up having to wait outside the park for availability. Now at this point most people would have swiped away from the video as it was very long and just featured a lot of him talking, but he ended up being able to really hook the listener at the end. He said that as he was waiting in line that day there was a large explosion that came from within the enclosed structure and then the park…vanished. It didn't collapse, it didn't explode, it simply vanished.
The entire thing seemed outlandish to me at the time. A huge amusement park vanishing? There was no evidence or traction to it so I was sure it would just get debunked and then disappear. But it didn't, in fact, people online began to obsess over it. For weeks my 'for you page' was filled with, "the truth about Avalon," "you won't believe what happened at Avalon," and "I found Avalon!" All videos of wannabe content creators talking about the apparent location of the long lost park or how they knew what happened that day. Some of the stuff was pretty standard, like how a big corporation bought the park and there were signs that they planned to get rid of it; but some were more outlandish delving into the realm of conspiracy rather than actual research. The most outlandish one that caught people's attention for a while was the "bunker theory." Basically someone theorized that there was a bunker underneath the entire park conducting experiments (as all conspiracy theories do) and they had discovered how to fold time and space to move objects from one location to another, or in other words teleportation. For one reason or another I got really into the hype, I loved the idea of this park vanishing into thin air even if I did not believe it to be real. Or at least I didn't until early 2020 when there was the first big break in the supposed 'case'. An anonymous account named User_23678312-9 put out a video of him walking through a corridor that was only lit by his flashlight. For the most part the video was pretty chill and had little substance, but then the person holding the camera came into a large dome-like structure. Everything was very dark but you could very barely make out the silhouettes of a ferris wheel and some other rides off in the distance. The most damning piece of evidence however was when they reached down and picked up a name tag that had been laying on the ground. It read Dorothea Avalon's Toil.
That was the final straw, the park actually existed, and someone had found it. After that the video was taken down soon after with no follow up, a few other videos started to show up of people claiming the original was fake and then after about a year the search for Avalon's Toil died to everyone except for me. There was no way it was fake, the video was too conclusive. Even if it had been special effects to promote something then why nothing else? For a video to blow up the way it did would cause anyone to chase the clout it brought, but nothing came. That was when my casual viewing became an obsession, a hunt to become the second person to find Avalon.
I noticed a piece of paper that was sticking out from a newspaper stand. The paper was rough and had clearly been wet and damp from years of water drippage. To my own shock, there were parts of it that were legible. I picked up the paper, feeling it start to disintegrate in my hand. The newsletter came from the day the park sank, it was blotchy but after a few minutes of holding the paper up to my flashlight I was able to make out some of the words from the headline:
"Challenge…Arthur's Court,"
I felt an immediate elation, "Arthur's court challenge!" I proclaimed louder than I had expected. My voice echoed throughout the room bouncing off of the decrepit space. Hearing my voice bounce reinforced truly how alone I was, it was daunting, the feeling of being utterly alone with no one to find me if need be. An overwhelming sense of dread began to settle within me as I grasped with the fact that I was indeed completely alone. I could hear the loud thumping of my heart as a soft echo throughout the room, my own heartbeat was loud enough to be heard in the silence. I quickly slapped the sides of my face and shook my head. These thoughts were not helping anyone, they would only hinder my goal. The thumping was still there but it was more fueled by excitement rather than fear. I shined my light past the turnstiles to find the entrance completely covered by rubble.
"Of course," I said frustrated. I walked over and began to move rocks and other large pieces of rubble out of the way, nothing. The rocks seemed to make up the majority of the entrance and I had no way of knowing how far into the tunnel it went. I looked around a little bit more and noticed something orange glow under the light of the flashlight. I could only see a sliver of it, but it looked like a bit of spray paint that had been covered by some rubble. It was odd to say the least, spray painting something at the entrance was one thing but it was another for it not to appear faded; it was more recent. I loved the rubble away and to my surprise it was an orange arrow, blotchy and smeared, that pointed towards the wall next to the entrance. I looked up and shined my flashlight where it pointed, nothing, just a wall was there. This was even more confusing, like a riddle that didn't quite fit. I thought for a moment before deciding to inspect the wall. It was blue and clearly faded from years of water and time damage, it didn't give me much to go on. I reached my hand towards the wall, expecting it to hold my weight, but instead the wall gave and my hand punctured through to the other side, like it was a veil of paper. I stumbled a bit as my hand went through, and examined the hole that my hole had mistakenly made. I ran my arm down the wall and the hole grew bigger and bigger until I was able to see a narrow pathway that led through the wall obscured by a few pipes. I pulled off my backpack, holding it in my left hand and shimmied through the wall. The pipes grazed my face as I thanked God for making me naturally smaller so I could fit through this hole. My shirt scrunched and smeared as it rubbed against the wall instantly making it dirty. The years underground had done nothing good for the cleanliness of the place. When I finally made it to the other side I found myself in a long hallway that seemed familiar to me, it was the exact hallway in User's video!
"They really were here!" I exclaimed excitedly. I quickly put my backpack back on and continued down the hallway, reenacting the TikTok that had inspired me so much. I walked for a while and found the first thing I wanted to explore, a door. In the video I had seen there was a door that was off to the side that the User never went through, he simply walked past it and continued down the hall. It had piqued my curiosity for years but I didn't know that I would actually get to see it. I reached out for the knob and turned the handle, dust immediately encompassed my hand. Instead of hearing the satisfying click of the door opening, I heard a clatter on the other side of the door. I pulled in the door and to my surprise the door handle stayed with me.
"What…" I was confused as I held half of the door handle in my hand. Age and whatever had happened here had definitely caught up with the place. The door opened slightly. I shrugged and dropped the door handle. The door shrieked as I continued to push it open, the build up of rust caused flakes of bronze to fall down on my head the longer I pushed. Whatever was in this room had not been touched for a while now, it was left to decay and rot. Shining my light around the room, it became clear quickly that this was a security office. There were a couple of desks in the room with old decayed food as well as other personal effects, but my attention was drawn to the 9 CRT tvs that were positioned on the wall. The tvs were set up like a grid, 3 on each row making a perfect square. Each tv had a little white label on it that had at one point marked where in the park it was watching, but now they were too faded to tell. I investigated the desk in front of the tvs to find what looked like a switchboard with numerous wires running out of it connecting to the grid on the wall. I knew nothing would happen and yet I still found myself reaching towards the switchboard.
"This thing has been here for at least 40 years," I say to myself, "there is no way it has any power," and yet I still found myself pressing the button labeled start. To no surprise, nothing happened. Nothing came to life, no sparks flew, no lights turned on, it was just dead. I sighed, still slightly disappointed even though I knew this would be the result. I picked up my bag and mentally prepared myself to head towards the park when a blue light suddenly blinded me from the other side of the room. I held my hand in front of my face and after a few seconds my eyes started to adjust. A jolly tune began to play from the light as well, it had the sound of a king's heralds mixed with jovial synths. I looked at the light once again and realized that it was a tv. Somehow this tv at the back of the room had started to play whatever this music was. I was bewildered, it was hard to speak, but I was also incredibly frightened. How had it turned on? This place has no power, could I have done it by pressing the power button? Did some generator in this place still have some juice? My thoughts were interrupted by a voice:
"Hello," it said, a man appeared on the tv. He is very pristine with perfectly trimmed hair, an orderly mustache, and a beautifully maintained tan suit with a blue tie that says 'Avalon' on it. However his most striking feature is his eyes, one of them is an icy blue color while the other is a dark gold, a very unique eye color to have. "My name is Jameson Gwaine, CFO of Exmouth shipping and the head operator of the pride and joy of our company: Avalon!" the voice said in a wondrous manner. As he says this the image shifts to show different parts of the park back in its prime; children and families laughing and eating, people going on rides, pictures being taken with the many mascots around the park, and finally people trying to pull the sword from the stone to no avail. It was all very cheesy and made me cringe a little bit just watching it, but I still loved every minute. For as far as we could tell there was no recoverable footage of the park, its attractions, its features, even its mascots were a mystery. People had speculated for a while as to what they might be, definitely focused around Arthurian legend, but there was no evidence to back it up besides the name 'Avalon'. I quickly throw off my backpack and scrounge around for my log book. I don't want to miss a single word.
"It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Avalon community as our new security guard," Mr. Gwaine continued, "I know you will do a bang up job of keeping us and the many families that come through our door safe."
"Yeah they did a great job," I say laughing to myself as I write.
"I won't take up too much of your time but there are a few things you should know that it is only right that I tell you. First off is that safety is our top priority here at Avalon, every ride and attraction goes through rigorous safety checks to make sure it us up to our code; we do not need one of our patrons getting hurt while having the best day of their life. Secondly, there is a level of professionalism we expect here at Avalon. I know that we may seem strict but we are able to offer more money to our staff because they are willing to adhere to the codes that we set. That being said, we do not have any tolerance for fuc…I mean mess ups." Jameson says, "we expect you to be ready to go with all of your equipment, duties ready to be completed, at 6:00 AM everyday this park is open. You are required to smile as much as possible, let the people know you are there to keep them safe not to threaten them, and you will deal with any issues in a swift manner that allows for no one to observe anything out of the ordinary for over 15 seconds."
That last part stuck with me. 15 seconds? I had seen my fair share of disputes and disturbances whether it was at school or in public, to resolve one in an orderly manner within 15 seconds was near impossible…unless the order you were given was to use force. I thought for a moment, something about this did not sit right with me. Sure the video was jovial and like any other cringe training video but something was off, it left a bad aftertaste.
"Lastly, there is one other thing I like to tell all new employees before they start their first day on the job," Jameson continued. It went silent, the tv was still going but there was no more music. The tone had changed, changed to where it felt like there was a chill in the air. "I know you have been extensively told, but let me make it clear," he said in a harsh manner, "You will honor the code. You are here for a reason. You were chosen. If you want what was promised then you will not mess up. And if you need a reminder then you can take that up with your supervisor who will take it into account." A flash of red suddenly appeared behind Jameson in an ominous manner. I dropped my log book as it happened.
"Or you could always just look at your guide book to remind yourself," Jameson continued talking the way he had before, all joy and excitement gone. His voice about everything else told us that this was a place to be enjoyed by all, even us. But his tone now said…do what you are told.
"But I am sure you are already well aware," He said. The music started again and the jovial tone returned. "I hope you enjoy your time with us here at Avalon! Keep our patrons safe and remember; no head, no foot, everyone is equal in Avalon!"