Zoe Doesn't Want To Play Anymore

For fans of Sesame Street many will think of Elmo or Bert or even Cookie Monster when they imagine anything remotely sinister in the show - ignoring one of the more recent and dangerous elements of the show.

Zoe.

Zoe, a seemingly harmless creature, is in fact a demon, one which has successfully merged with Sesame Street, transforming what was once a childhood dream into a nightmare.

I know this because I had the misfortune of watching an episode of Sesame Street which was never aired to the public - an episode which never would have been seen at all had it not been pirated and leaked onto the web.

The episode has moved across the web in varied forms, being shutdown several times but cropping up again in new websites or accounts - the quality always pretty terrible but still giving an in-sight into the horrors that I saw.

The first sign that the episode was unusual was a total lack of the iconic Sesame Street song, just a close-up of a dirty sign reading "Sesame Street" - the letters faded and the sign itself looking as if it was going to fall off at any point.

The scene then broke into a static burst that made me jump, disappearing to reveal Elmo and his blanket. Elmo was sitting on his bed holding his blanket and crying; his red fur seemed to be falling out and he kept his head buried in the blanket as he trembled uncontrollably.

Another static burst broke the scene, disappearing to reveal Zoe in the room with Elmo. The two engaged in a tug of war with the blanket, Elmo yelling at Zoe to stop while she yelled back at Elmo to "shut up" The intensity of the argument was very off for what was such a light-hearted show, and despite both being puppets there was an unmistakable malice in the way they tugged and pulled- their voices loud and frightening, in stark contrast to how they normally were.

Yet another static burst broke the scene before disappearing, this time revealing Zoe and Elmo engaged in what looked like a physical confrontation - Zoe choking and slamming Elmo against the ground repeatedly as Elmo yelled out "Stop it Zoe! Stop!"

Then without warning, Zoe stopped, Elmo now below the camera and out of view. Zoe looked straight into the camera with unblinking eyes. It was at this point I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise and a shiver run down my spine as she spoke directly to the audience:

"Zoe doesn't want to play anymore..".

The static burst once again broke the scene and before I could quite react I was greeted to a blank screen, deciding I was either crazy or someone had played a joke on me. I tried to rewind the clip and played it.

The screen remained blank but I heard Zoe's voice, crystal clear despite the black screen:

"Zoe doesn't want to play anymore..".