I'm sure everyone here has heard of the laceygames.com rabbit hole- what started as an innocent set of "Flash games for girls" quickly turned into harrowing, morbid accounts of trauma and bad happenings befalling the poor, innocent protagonist, Lacey.
From an outsider's point of view, Lacey's story seemed hopeless. A person followed by pain and agony wherever they went. There seemed to be no rest for Lacey, from the first episode of her series to the last- the much-despised webtoon "lacey says goodbye," in which Lacey seemingly hangs herself after losing all her friends, her final words being "i wish i was pretty enough for this to matter." Parents hated it, children hated it, modern fans of all ages still hate it- it singlehandedly halved the Lacey Games fandom, making it mere scraps of what it once was back in its heyday.
However, I think I'm the only one to discover that, mere days before the site closed down, there was exactly one extremely well-hidden cartoon that gave the fans of Lacey a much more uplifting ending, and I'm sure that it'll help rekindle the fandom too.
Back around '09 or so, a commercial for Lacey plush toys was hosted on the website when going to certain games (note that the linked video had some kind of weird troll footage added midway through by the uploader to try to make it spooky or something). At the time I, a young girl myself (between the ages of 9 and 10), loved Lacey with all my heart, so I begged my parents to buy me the Lacey plushie- it was limited-time-only, after all!
My parents tried repeatedly to explain to me what FOMO was, and that they'd probably restock it someday in the future, but I pleaded and pleaded until eventually they relented and paid the 30ish dollars needed. I was ecstatic at the time- I could finally hang out with Lacey, like I always wanted! And besides, I wanted to tell her everything was going to be alright, because some very mean people had been associating with her, as far as my innocent little girly mind could tell from the games (especially the dress-up, which I only ended up playing 3 levels of every time I revisited the site as a young lady).
(I suppose my parents were wrong in the end, because mere weeks after the plushie went up for sale, after the final day of orders the whole thing shut down and the domain was purchased by some Thai food company.)
When Lacey came in the mail, I swear she never left my side for even a moment. I would cuddle with her when I was falling asleep, have tea parties and girls' nights out with her, and even brought her to school- my parents insisted that I don't but eventually, as they did earlier, relented- and everyone at school loved her and wanted to borrow her. I always kept her close, though.
I remember the day I got the plush, I took the tag off it and put it on the counter, too busy hugging Lacey to throw it away. My parents found it and tried to convince me to keep it, saying that there was "something cool" on it. I kept insisting that I didn't see anything, so they decided to keep it and told me to "tell them if I changed my mind."
I didn't until a week or so ago.
On a whim, looking at my old Lacey plushie looking down on me from her spot on top of my workspace, I called up my parents and asked me if they still had that tag they said had "something cool." Surprisingly, my mom said she did. She held onto it as a reminder of the toy I was so infatuated with as a kid, and drove over to give it to me.
I flipped open the tag and realized that, well, the tag flipped open, and child me was a total dummy. Inside was one of those peel-off stickers hiding text, and some text.
The text read, "thank you for being lacey's friend! lacey loves you! to celebrate your new friendship, lacey has given you a secret cartoon! yay!"
A whole secret cartoon... I would have flipped had I seen this when the plushie had arrived, but better late than never.
Since the site was down, I hopped on archive.org and put in the link- which seemed to be an unintelligible jumble of letters and numbers after the main domain (presumably to keep kids from seeing it that hadn't bought the plush.) There was exactly one archive- from the day before the site closed.
Now, before we go anywhere with a description of the "secret cartoon" I'd like to fill those of you who weren't obsessed with Lacey like I was back in the day in on what exactly "lacey says goodbye" entailed.
It was short and definitely not sweet, to say the least. It opened on a shot of Lacey lying in bed, her eyes open and bloodshot. There was the blaring sound of an alarm clock in the back, as she was lying next to an alarm clock. "4:19AM," it said. She hadn't gotten a lick of sleep, presumably.
She gripped her head, clearly in distress, as images of the characters from the series flashed on screen, ending on a shot of Jay's corpse from the makeup game.
Lacey sighed heavily and got out of bed. She lugged a stool out of her closet and took some rope from behind her bed and began to tie a noose.
This went on for about 30 seconds, during which time text flashed on the screen reading various insulting and demeaning things (such as "loser," "ugly" and "only a stalker could love you") before she swung the rope over a ceiling bar, stepped into the noose and kicked away the stool. The rope tautened and the life in Lacey's eyes went away in an instant. As said before, the final text on screen read "i wish i was pretty enough for this to matter."
I bring this up (even though it hurts to discuss) because this new cartoon began in much the same way, which contrasted heavily with the site's background of hearts, pink and PNGs of the Lacey plushie. However, there was no alarm, and the time was 9AM rather than 4:19.
Just as she was about to get the stool, though, there was a knock at the door- one of those "3D knock" audios that sound like it's coming from the wall next to you, which actually jumped me and made me turn to see if there was anyone there- nobody.
She opened the door and saw that there was nobody there- but she looked down to see a bouquet with a note attached. She read the note and began to tear up.
It slowly panned around to the contents of the note, which read, in simple handwriting:
"Don't do it. I'd miss you."
There was a fade transition to the next day, also 9AM. Lacey walked outside of her room and noticed another bouquet. She picked it up and raed the attached note.
"You look lovely today. Don't stress about how you look."
She smiled gently, brushed back her hair and walked down the hallway, presumably to her job.
Another fade, another bouquet. This one read simply:
"Check your phone."
Lacey looked confused, but opened her phone anyway. Once again, she teared up, clapping a hand over her mouth, but a joyous smile was obviously present.
On her phone was a text from Jay, in a full-body cast. She was holding a thumbs-up, noticeably straining. A message appeared below it:
"yo lacey! just wanted to reach out after that skateboarding accident! don't worry, i'm fine- i just am in a ton of pain right now. someone typed this for me, if you didn't guess. let's meet up in a couple weeks when i've healed up! p.s. the person who dictated this to me is johnny from your apartment floor, and don't tell him i told you this, but he's totally crushing on you!"
A montage followed- each day, at 9AM, another bouquet and another positive note. "One day that awful man who wronged you will be brought to justice." "Remember to reach out. Your friends want to know you're OK." "You're gonna do an amazing job today!"
Eventually, it ended up at 8:50AM rather than 9. Lacey awoke eagerly to open her door and find her daily affirmation, but instead of the bouquet, she was greeted by the man who was leaving it.
He was a man around her height and presumably her age, with short blonde hair and a lean build. He saw her and blushed slightly, waving.
Lacey waved back, smiling ear-to-ear.
A second montage followed of Lacey and the man- who I could only assume was Johnny from Jay's note- getting along and having a good time. They went out to various locations and were clearly very comfortable in each other's presence.
Slowly, a paper overlay faded in on the lower half of the screen, and the remainder of the cartoon was voiceover from who was presumably Lacey and Lacey and Johnny watched fireworks together on a grassy hill. This is what it read.
"i feel so much better now. someone finally talks to me and understands me without leering at my body or blaming me for something that's not my fault."
"johnny's so sweet and he loves me for me. that's all i really needed!"
"jay is finally part of my friend group again, everyone's all back together! i was so worried, i remember dreaming about putting makeup on her dead body- i woke up crying that night. it's so amazing to see her alive and well, after i thought she surely died!"
"the diner's picking up business too- johnny's recommended his friends and they're all so polite and patient. i'm getting a steady income, i'll be able to buy my own house!"
"i'm buying a house with room for 2. i'm sure johnny will want to come."
"thank you to everyone who played my games and stuck with me through my worst moments. and especially you, friend!"
A scribbly drawing faded onto the paper of Lacey smiling and pointing at the camera, while on the top half Lacey leaned into Johnny's shoulder. A heart-shaped firework went off and it faded to black.
I'll admit it, I ugly-cried at that ending- all of my childhood worry for Lacey was finally solved, and I just couldn't hold it in anymore.
I felt this wonderful sense of closure, and I still do feel it. I'm hugging my Lacey plush right now as I write this.
The weird thing is, I swear it feels warmer than usual right now. And her smile, just a bit wider.
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Author's Notes:
Ths definitely isn't a Creepypasta- I've heard they're called "feelspastas."
Lacey is such a sweetie and I wanted to write this unofficial continuation of her story to give her someone to love her and a happy ending.
This is kinda like CSM Date Game in that sense.
I kinda don't hav emuich to say right now since it's almost 5AM where I am and I can barely sleep. I might update in the morning.
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