The unsolved disappearance of Andrea Quesada, a twenty-five year old nurse practitioner, had sparked some interest on the internet until it was pushed aside for bigger and stranger true crime stories. Ms. Quesada vanished on her way home from a local drugstore. Sadly, it was not Andrea herself that has captured the collective imagination of the amateur sleuths,but the woman she was last seen talking to. The woman was wearing a white sundress and large white sun hat became known as “The hat lady”. She was slightly out of frame of security footage, the consistent element being the brim of the hat in frame .
Andrea seemed to have been surprised to have run into the hat lady, but clearly knew her as they walked away together talking. Body language experts have described Andrea’s movements as “casual” and possibly “flirtatious”, though that was in debate. Andrea had been described by those closest to her as “highly monogamous” finding even mild inconsequential flirtation from strangers “unnecessary” and “annoying”.
Another camera from another location, a gas station across the street, makes clear the white hat woman was waiting for Andrea to exit the drug store, but was too far away and so pixelated no other information could be made out, except they walked the direction of Andrea’s apartment, which she never arrived at. After this the trail goes completely cold. With nothing to go and with Andrea’s “boring and stable life” the internet had a blank canvas to which to project the wildest of theories from secret lovers to cult abduction. The widely accepted theory that she was a sex trafficking victim though she did not fit the typical profile.
None of them were correct.
What you are about to read is the story of Andrea Maria Quesada in her last moments on earth.
Two weeks after her disappearance Andrea found herself in a padded room with a pounding headache. She didn’t know how much had passed as having no clocks had messed with her perception of time. With the way she felt she figured she must have been unconscious for a day or two, perhaps more.
She was familiar with these types of rooms from her job at the psych ward, but only from the other side. It seemed to be makeshift, too big for just one person. It felt not like a cell, but more like a classroom re-purposed. There were no windows, the only source of light being the six humming fluorescent on the ceiling.
Once again, as her mind reset, she could tell that because she wasn’t in a straight jacket and that her bed had cotton sheets her captors didn’t think she was at risk of harming herself, and they were correct. While primary an agnostic as an adult she still held the belief that suicide was an unforgivable sin.
She struggled to remember everything that happened after she purchased a pack of AA batteries for her television remote and 7-Up at the drugstore. She remembered walking outside and that the sun was right overhead. It was so bright that she needed to use her hand to protect her eyes. Someone, a familiar voice called her name and then…nothing.
Begrudgingly waking up the only thing that had a vague sense of familiarity were the entities she was hallucinating.
There were two types of creatures: The man-size ones that could be described as colorful two-dimensional Blotch People. The Blotch people had no distinguishable limbs, but still moved like they had arms and legs. They were apathetic to their surroundings and Andrea’s plight seemingly going about tasks and socializing.
The second type of creature are the” puppets”. They were just as blurry as the blotch people, they were clearly hand puppets with their bodies ending at their waists with the implication that the lower half of their bodies where just below the floor or on the other side of the wall they were springing out of. If they were not “puppets” and only looked like “puppets” Andrea thought perhaps they where some sort of organism much like a sea sponge or perhaps a fungus.
The puppets are smaller and more demanding of Andrea’s attention, waving at her and doing a dance that consisted of stiffly swaying back and forth. They acted out little plays mocking the action of the Blotch People. When Andrea shifted her eyes she could see the puppets hung their heads down depressed, but when she returned focus back onto them they lit up and started to perform again. It was as if her gaze fed them.
Andrea was not afraid of these visions, but instead they reminded her of this story a co-worker told her about the summer he worked at a retirement home. An eight-three year old man took a nasty fall and hit his head on a table. After regained consciousness he kept on seeing Sonic the Hedgehog. This elderly man, George Something, didn’t know who Sonic was, so he just called him “that blue guy”. When asked to describe “that blue guy” George said he was seeing as a “blue spiny cartoon mouse with red sneakers” that kept “zipping around”. The staff joking called Geroge’s vision “Sonic”, but it wasn’t confirmed until someone showed George a videogame magazine with Sega mascot on the cover. With knowing that the little rascal didn’t come directly from his imagination George was amused, but very confused.
The most George ever had to do with videogames was playing Minesweeper and Solitaire on the computer. His preference in entertainment was boxing and football and if he had any affection for fictional characters it’d be King Kong, the Three Stooges or Hogan’s Heroes. Perhaps at some point maybe he saw his grandchildren playing the game or watched a bit of the cartoon while channel surfing, but it was strange that such a brief encounter would manifest itself in this prominent way. George took a passive interest in Sonic the Hedgehog, but ultimately found they whole premise too strange and unhelpful in dealing with his “blue guy” . He enjoyed the extra attention younger staffers gave him, but, truth be told, he would have preferred that if he was going to have visual hallucinations that it was his wife that passed a decade prior.
As the thought completed, this story Andrea heard about a man named George who saw Sonic the Hedgehog, she realized this wasn’t the first time she had this thought. Coming out of her haze it occurred to her that she had this deja vu feeling because she had woken in this room before and had seen these things.
Then, like a sewing needle to brain she remembered where these blotch people and puppets came from. They came from “The Show”. “The Show” they were forcing her to watch. “The Show” that was violently rejecting her. “The Show”, whose name she dared not even say in her head, she was sure “The Show” hated her and didn’t want her around. She didn’t know why she felt such hostility from the show. It was just a really bizzare kids show, but it evoked the same anxiety as a room full of strangers staring you down like they wanted to kill you for being in the same space as them. Somehow it made her feel like she was in danger.
The door opened and the blotch people and puppets disappeared. Standing there was a woman, tall and lanky wearing maroon medical scrubs and cheap plastic rabbit mask, the kind meant for children’s birthday parties.
The tall lanky woman wasn’t unique in this regard. Everyone Andrea had encountered had on a cheap plastic rabbit mask, like it’s part of the uniform. The Tall Woman was new though. Andrea thought that it must be the graveyard shift.
Andrea, in past moments of clarity thought about the nature of the masks and believed it had to do with making sure everything remained impersonal. Having worked in a psych ward and having patients yell your name or try to gain favor by using a little bit of personal information you accidentally let slip out..she actually understood it. The reason for it being rabbits instead of cats, dogs or presidents of the united states was the same reason George saw Sonic the Hedgehog..there is no reason, it’s just how it ended up.
Without saying a word the lanky rabbit woman gestured Andrea to come forward so she can tie Andrea’s hands together with plastic restraints. Andrea sulked over to her, wrist extended and avoiding eye contact. It was always something Andrea hated about herself, the more scared she got the more compliant she became. This woman clearly doesn’t think she’s a threat. She could lunge herself at full force pushing the rabbit woman into a wall and make a break for it, but both of them know that’s not going to happen and Andrea had her wrists tied together. The same with her ankles, reducing her walking to a shuffle.
No words were spoken between Andrea and her captor. Fear made Andrea stay quiet. She wanted to talk about the show and how she thinks the television show not just hurts her but hates her. She hesitated though, wanting to prove that she was in fact sane if given the chance. And to her sanity meant compliance the way fear meant compliance.
So down the clean white hall with the potted plants they went and into the elevator. The elevator sped downwards quickly, a surprise to Andrea since she assumed she was already in the basement of a building. Perhaps, she thought, she was being taken to a sub-basement.
And again, she realized this wasn’t the first time she had this thought. She had taken this elevator ride before and was mistaken about being on the very bottom.
With a delightful “ding ding” the elevator opened up to white walls with potted plants, an exact copy of the floor they just left.
The lanky Rabbit Woman took Andrea to a door and punched in a code on a keypad.
A red light and a buzz. Nothing happened.
The Rabbit woman tried again, this time a little harder. Again, a red light, a buzz and the door doesn’t open.
“What the Hell….?” The Rabbit Woman muttered to herself.
The Rabbit Woman looked at her watch, clearly impatient and annoyed. Andrea made sure to break eye contact before she could be accused of staring too long.
The Rabbit Woman was ready to press even harder on the keypad when the door opened. It was a male orderly, wearing a brown rabbit mask, leading a male patient out of the room. The male patient was hunched over with his hands tied behind his back, face obscured with long hair, but it was obvious that he just took a few punches to the face.
“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting. Things took longer than expected” said the Rabbit Man.
“Don’t worry about it. We just got here.” said the Rabbit Woman, masking her previous annoyance.
“Hey, just give me a moment to escort him back and I’ll be back to help out” said the Rabbit Man.
The male patient looked up at Andrea.His face now visible she saw the freshly formed back eye and blood caked on the bottom of his nose. Making eye contact, his face emoted heartbreak and failure. He was expressing that he was sorry, but Andrea didn’t know why.
Ms. Quesada realized she knew this guy. Not particularly well, he just happened to work in the same building she did. He looked like he could be maintenance or possibly tech support.What she remembered about him is that he was a vocal libertarian and believer in the myth of the self-made man. The kind of guy who took paintball a little too seriously and didn’t like anything the masses liked on principle. The kind of guy she would never have anything to do with, but for the brief window before the Rabbit Man dragged him away, they may have well had been best friends.
The Rabbit Woman was oblivious to this exchange. Instead she was looking at the open door,but unsure if she should enter.
“Hey!” she called out the the Rabbit Man “Should I punch my code again with the door open?!”
“Did you punch it in prior?” asks the Rabbit Man “If so, you should already be in the system.”
“Are you sure?” asks the Rabbit Woman “Is that what they said during orientation? I don’t remember.”
“If your that concerned then close the door and punch in your code again. I’ll be right back!” said the Rabbit Man walking away.
The Rabbit Woman thought about it for a moment, closed the door and re-entered her code. The light on the keypad turned green and the door unlocked.
“Ah, easy breezy!” declared the Rabbit Woman. Andrea was preoccupied watching the Rabbit Man and his prisoner get on the elevator.
“Don’t worry” said the Rabbit Woman leading Andrea into the room. “ You’ll see your buddy again. Let go.”
Andrea was escorted into a white room. This room gave off the sense that it was somehow in a void. It wasn’t without distinguishing features. She had a sense that she’d been in a room like this before, but not this specific one. In a corner there was a locker and a small office refrigerator on a filing cabinet. One of the walls had a window, like how sound studios are set up. The other room was a bit of a mystery because the lights were off and she didn’t see a way to enter it.. The glass was thick, like a blast shield. There was a faint glow of a small green light visible from the video camera currently recording, but Andrea didn’t register it as such.
And in the middle of this room was a comfy red chair.
But there was something missing. The red chair just faced a blank wall. Andrea’s first thought was it must be another chair so whoever is running this operation could sit across from her and ask her questions.
“Huh? Where is it?” asked the Rabbit Woman out loud, echoing Andrea’s observation.
Hesitant on how to proceed the Rabbit Woman escorted Andrea and sat her down in the red chair. Andrea looked forward, staring ahead of her at the white wall. The Rabbit Woman then made her way to the locker area.
“Comfortable huh?” She asked “See?! It’s not all bad!”
Still facing forward Andrea heard the refrigerator open and close. The Rabbit Woman returned with a paper fast food cup with a plastic cover and straw.
“Thirsty?” asked the Rabbit Woman.
Andrea paused. Her ingrained fear of putting unknown substances into her body was in conflict with her natural inclination to appease.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Grape flavored water” responded the Rabbit Woman.
Andrea was frozen, scared to take the drink but afraid of the consequences if she didn’t.
“If you don’t like grape we had other flavors..” said the Rabbit Woman, growing impatient holding up the cup.
“Is there..is there anything in it?” Andrea asked meekly.
“Like… what?” said the Rabbit Woman, genuinely confused over Andrea’s reaction. “Like gluten?”
Then it clicked.
“Oh for Pete’s sake!” said the Rabbit Woman.
The Rabbit Woman lifted her mask and took some sips from the straw. She then swallowed and opened her mouth to show Andrea she wasn’t trying to trick her.
Andrea accepted the drink and took long sips. She was thirstier than she realized.
“Thank you” she told the Rabbit Woman, with sincerity.
“No prob Bob” responded the Rabbit Woman.
The door to the White Room opened and the Rabbit Man pushed a television on tray, like a substitute teacher ready to show the class a video. He rolls it in front of Andrea and plugs a power breaker into an outlet on the floor.
“You probably were wondering where the television went!” said the Rabbit Man to the Rabbit Woman.
“Yeah, I was going to say…” said the Rabbit Woman, with an undercurrent of annoyance.
The television was all set up, the screen glowing blue waiting for a signal.
More short term memories start to reappear. They used the same type of setup when she was forced to watch “The Show”. The last time the show hurt her and hurt her badly. Like a giant hand knocking on her brain, but she refused to let whatever was knocking in. Then whatever it was started kicking and then started throwing it’s full body against the barrier cracking it.
For Andrea, accommodating to a fault, it was too much. She fought back against this intruder with all the resistance she could muster until she passed out.
But it can’t be the show again, she thought. Because wouldn’t they want her to make a statement about what happened? Shouldn’t it be on record what she experienced? Clearly the blotch people and the puppets should be noted. If she was a test subject this would be important information. They’d have to be showing her something else. Maybe the reason why she’s there.
“Yeah, after the last session that jackass attacked the television set, knocking it over” said the Rabbit Man.
He then walked over the Andrea and firmly placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t tell anyone I called him a Jackass. It’s against the rules to call you guys names” he said threateningly.
“We’re also not allowed to threaten the test subjects” said the Rabbit Woman, as she stared right at Andrea and took another sip of the grape flavored water.
Andrea panicked, looking frantically at her captors, fearing they were going to beat her.
“I won’t say anything! I promise!” Andrea attempting to sound dispassionate, but failing.
“That’s what like to hear” said the Rabbit Woman to Andrea, rewarding her with the sweet sugary taste of grape water.
In these moments Andrea still believed there was a chance she was still safe. That this wasn’t “The Show”. It was something else, anything else. Why else would they threaten her?
But the Rabbit Man hit play and the familiar sound of children screaming on a roller coaster. Then the theme music began….
“The spiderband plays
chop chop chop
Fighting off dreams again.
I can’t see my face!
Destructor
Destructor
The mad mad moo
Says you aren’t me
But is they you?
You can’t touch the moon!
Destructor
Destructor
The grim tea cup
is steaming milk
Burning through its brain.
Our thoughts can’t blah!
Destructor
Destructor
I can’t see my face!
Andrea faith in compliance failed her. She wasn’t passed out for days, she was unconscious for only a few hours. They already knew about the entities lurking in the passway from those who came before her. They knew about the commanding and greedy entity that hid on the other side of the screen. They already knew it rejected Andrea violently, angy with
The bosses wanted to see what would happen if they kept on pressing it’s patience.
Half an Hour later, Andrea Maria Quesada, daughter of Hector and Melissa Quesada, an only child, Valedictorian, 4th generation nurse practitioner with dreams of visiting Bali and finally moving in with her long term girlfriend was not longer just missing.
She was utterly destroyed.
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