The Disturbing Truth About Chuck E. Cheese's Ball Pit Incident

The 1992 Chuck E. Cheese Ball Pit Incident is a creepypasta story written by Reddit user u/cal_ness and narrated by Mr. Freaky. It tells the tale of a boy named Miles Penrose who disappeared at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1992. The story is narrated by a former employee of the restaurant, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident and was working as a dish boy. The narrator describes the disgusting nature of ball pits and how they were impossible to clean properly. On the day of the incident, Miles was attending a birthday party at the restaurant with his family and friends. He was playing in the ball pit when he suddenly vanished. The narrator claims to have witnessed Miles being pulled under the balls by seven pale arms that reached up from underneath. Despite the narrator's account, the police dismissed the story as a standard abduction and were unable to find any trace of Miles. The story concludes with the narrator reflecting on the incident many years later and expressing relief that ball pits have largely fallen out of favour.

A child goes missing at Chuck E. Cheese

It was a busy afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese, with kids running around, music blaring, and the smell of pizza and grease hanging heavy in the air. Eight-year-old Miles Penrose was attending his friend's birthday party, enjoying the games and sugar rush with the other children. His parents were chatting with the other adults, a mix of parents and caregivers.

As the party reached its peak, around four o'clock, Miles went missing. His mother, Jane Penrose, noticed his absence first and immediately raised the alarm. The restaurant staff shut down the restaurant, ensuring everyone stayed inside while they searched for Miles. The police were called, and they began taking statements from everyone present. The questioning went on for hours, with Miles' parents growing increasingly distraught as time passed.

I was working at the restaurant that day, clearing tables and keeping an eye on the kids. I had been keeping a casual watch on Miles, who seemed a little lost and lonely despite the crowd. He was standing alone in the ball pit, a goofy smile on his face as he looked around. Suddenly, I saw a flash of movement. I stopped in my tracks and looked through the plastic windows of the ball pit.

That's when I saw them: seven pale arms with dark blue veins reaching up from beneath the balls, grabbing onto Miles. His expression changed from happiness to sheer terror as he realised what was happening. He started to slip below the surface, screaming for help. But his cries were drowned out by the noise of the other children, who were lost in their own sugar-fuelled fun.

Before I could react, Miles was pulled violently beneath the balls, leaving only a slight disturbance in their wake. I stood there, frozen, unable to process what I had just witnessed. I eventually stumbled away, too scared to tell anyone what I had seen.

It was only thirty minutes later that Jane noticed her son was missing. The police questioned everyone, and I was the only one who had seen anything unusual. I told them about the arms and the trapdoor I had seen under the balls, but they dismissed my story as the ramblings of a horror movie-obsessed teenager. They wrote off Miles' disappearance as a standard abduction and eventually stopped searching after several months.

Jane, however, never gave up hope. She returned to the restaurant daily, searching for any sign of her son. She often pulled me aside, asking if I had remembered anything else, but I had nothing more to offer. Eventually, the restaurant manager, who had always been short-tempered and impatient, told me to stop talking to her and pack up my things.

I left that town soon after, trying to put the incident behind me. But years later, in 2019, I found myself facing a similar situation. This time, it was at an art exhibit centred around a giant ball pit. I watched in horror as a little girl named Sarah Wallace was taken in the same way as Miles. Again, my attempts to help were too late, and Sarah disappeared.

These traumatic events haunted me, and I found myself drawn back into the mystery of Miles' disappearance. My research led me nowhere, and I considered giving up. Then, one night, I found seven ghostly hands reaching up from the floor of my apartment, leaving a chilling message on my window. It was a warning from the entity that had taken Miles and Sarah, threatening me to stop my investigation.

Frightened, I agreed to their demands and backed away from my search for answers. I was consumed by guilt for letting go of Miles' memory, but I couldn't bring myself to continue the search. I hoped that with the decline of ball pits, no other child would suffer the same fate as Miles and Sarah.

The ball pit is difficult to clean

Despite these efforts, the ball pit is still disgusting. Kids with faces "smeared with grease and cheese" dive into the ball pit headfirst. The narrator even sees a kid urinating into the ball pit.

The narrator finds all sorts of things in the ball pit, including cheap toys, beloved blankets, and mouldy slices of pizza.

The ball pit is so stuffed with plastic balls that when Miles is pulled under, the only sign that he was there is a small disturbance in the balls as they try to follow the source of whatever is pulling downward.

The narrator sees a child being pulled into the ball pit

The narrator, a sixteen-year-old working at Chuck E. Cheese, sees a child, Miles Penrose, alone in the ball pit. Miles is smiling, but he doesn't seem to be one of the popular kids. The narrator describes him as having red hair and a goofy smile. Suddenly, pale arms reach up from all around Miles and grab him. The arms look old and dead, and Miles' expression changes to one of horror. The narrator is the only one who sees Miles' terrified expression as he is pulled beneath the balls. The other children are screaming too, high on sugar, and don't notice Miles' disappearance. The narrator is too scared to tell anyone what happened and instead goes to the back of the restaurant and starts cleaning dishes.

The narrator describes the incident to the police, but they don't believe him, thinking he's a dumb kid who watches too many horror movies. The manager of the restaurant, who resembles Gustavo Fring from Breaking Bad, pulls the narrator aside and tells him to get back to work. Despite the narrator's insistence that Miles disappeared into the ball pit, no one believes him. The narrator helps to empty the ball pit, and a trap door is discovered, but no sign of Miles is found.

The narrator reflects on the incident twenty-eight years later, in 2019, when he attends a fancy gala with a ball pit as the centerpiece. He is terrified and insists that they leave, but his friends don't understand his trauma. During the gala, a little girl named Sarah Wallace is standing in the ball pit alone when pale arms reach up and grab her. The narrator tries to save her but is too late. He is questioned by the police and again tries to tell them about the arms, but there is no trapdoor this time, and Sarah remains missing.

The narrator's experience at the gala prompts him to research the history of ball pits and disappearances, but he comes up short. One night, he sees movement outside his bedroom window, which is not physically possible as there is no fire escape. He sees seven hands appear on the window and trace a message in the condensation: "I will stop sniffing around like a cheese-hungry rat." The narrator is terrified and feels guilty for giving up on Miles' and Sarah's memory. He traces an "X" next to "YES," and seven ghostly hands reach up from the floor, rubbing the window in circles.

A trap door is discovered under the ball pit

After two hours of emptying the ball pit, a trap door is found built into the wooden floor. The narrator, who had cleaned the ball pit several times before, had never seen it. The trap door is made of wood and has a rusty nail protruding from its edge, on which a child's coin purse is snagged. The purse is embroidered with a name, but the story does not reveal whose name is on it.

The narrator informs the police about the trap door, and they ask the franchise owner what is underneath it. He tells them it is a crawl space that no one uses anymore, and that the building used to be a machine shop. The police insist on taking a look, and one of them goes underneath with a flashlight but finds no sign of Miles or an exit point.

The trap door and the crawl space are dismissed as irrelevant to the investigation, and the police chalk Miles' disappearance up to a standard abduction. The narrator, however, believes that the trap door is connected to Miles' disappearance, as he saw pale arms reaching up from the ball pit and pulling the boy underneath.

The narrator's belief is further reinforced by a similar incident that occurs 28 years later, when a little girl named Sarah Wallace disappears into a ball pit at an art exhibit. Although there is no trap door in this ball pit, the narrator sees pale arms reaching up and pulling Sarah underneath, just like what happened to Miles.

The narrator becomes convinced that there is a paranormal entity connected to the ball pits in both incidents and that this entity is responsible for the disappearances of Miles and Sarah. The narrator's apartment is visited by ghostly hands that leave a threatening message, demanding that the narrator stop investigating the disappearances.

The narrator is haunted by the entity from the ball pit

The narrator is haunted by the memories of the 1992 Chuck E. Cheese ball pit incident, where they witnessed the disappearance of eight-year-old Miles Penrose. The narrator, who was sixteen at the time and worked at the restaurant, saw Miles playing in the pit before pale, veiny arms reached up and pulled him under. The narrator was terrified and did not tell anyone what they saw. Despite the police searching the crawl space under the trapdoor in the ball pit, Miles was never found.

Years later, the narrator attended an art gala where there was another ball pit. They witnessed a similar incident where a little girl, Sarah Wallace, was playing alone before being pulled under by the same pale arms. The narrator tried to save her but failed. After this incident, the narrator began having nightmares and became obsessed with researching ball pit disappearances.

One night, the narrator saw seven ghostly hands appear on their bedroom window, leaving a threatening message in the condensation. The narrator was terrified and felt guilty for not doing more to help Miles and Sarah. They considered continuing their search for the truth but ultimately decided to stop, feeling too scared to continue.

The narrator is left with lingering trauma and guilt from the incidents, haunted by the memory of the entity from the ball pit and the children they failed to save.

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