I met Adrien for the first time in 2008 at a convention for independent animators. We connected over our shared love for early web animation culture and the raw imagination that flowed through sites like Newgrounds and Albino Blacksheep. He had a knack for collecting odd and offbeat things, and his enthusiasm was contagious. But this story isn't mine; it belongs to Adrien.

It's one that has stuck with him, and in turn, with me, since 2012 when he first shared it.

He had gone deep down one of his Newgrounds rabbit holes, exploring recommendations and user submissions. He was on the hunt for something obscure, something lost, and he found it in a web animation called "Misery Blues." Just the title caught his attention.

He described the animation's distinctive early 2000s Flash style, with its somewhat jerky motion, bold black lines, and muted color palettes. It opened with a long shot of a deserted nighttime bar. There were no characters, just an eerie stillness broken by a low hum.

Then, the camera slowly zoomed in on a table in the center of the room. As it got closer, the table started to shake violently, thudding against the wooden floor. Suddenly, it crashed to the ground. From under the overturned table, something appeared.

It was a cat—specifically, an anthropomorphic cat. It had gray fur, a lean build, and disturbingly human eyes. Adrien said the animation style was typical for that time, but something about the creature was deeply unsettling.

The cat stood still, its head tilted as if trying to understand its surroundings. Its eyes were blank, almost empty, silently asking the question, "Where am I?" It didn't make a sound, but its posture expressed complete confusion.

The camera zoomed in on the cat's face, and Adrien felt a growing sense of unease. As the zoom continued, he noticed something alarming: the cat's eyes were slowly turning black. Not just the pupils, but the entire eye, the whites fading into a dark void.

Adrien was gasping, as he sensed what was about to happen. He just knew. Then the screen abruptly went dark, leaving him staring in shock at the empty monitor.

But the silence didn't last long. Instead of a quiet moment, he heard sounds of a late night: the cold wind, the distant hoot of an owl, and the chirping of insects. It was an oddly peaceful soundscape.

Adrien was hooked. He sat there, eyes glued to the screen, waiting for something to happen. He anticipated something awful. A minute passed, which felt like an eternity. The night sounds continued...

Just when boredom started to creep in, it happened. The loud jump scare.

The gray cat's face, a twisted version of its former self, filled the screen. Its eyes were solid black, and its mouth was stretched into a wide, maniacal grin, showing needle-sharp teeth that looked nothing like a cat's.

But the worst part wasn't the image; it was the sound. Instead of a typical jump scare noise, it sounded like extreme VHS interference. Adrien described it as a piercing noise that could shatter eardrums.

He leaned back in his chair, heart racing. He scrambled for the volume control, quickly turning it down. He was living in an apartment then, and it was late—he didn't want to disturb his neighbors.

Fortunately, the noise stopped and the image faded back to the bar. Adrien leaned back once more, relief and terror washing over him simultaneously. He felt completely confused. For a moment, he worried about his neighbors, but nobody knocked at the door—thankfully.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to focus on the animation. The scene shifted. Now the camera showed the outside of the bar, where the door slowly creaked open, revealing darkness within.

The camera edged forward, getting closer until the screen went black. Another minute passed, with only the sound of his breathing. He wondered if the animation had frozen, stuck on a black screen.

Then, the image returned. This time, it was daytime. The animation revealed details hidden during the night, showing five more anthropomorphic cats. Adrien noted they were more detailed than the gray cat, with distinct personalities reflected in their expressions and clothing.

He learned their names: Arnoldo, a scruffy-looking guy; Freya, an easy-going lady; Seifer, the bartender with a tired look; his two-year-old son, Strago; and Relm, a rebellious teenage catgirl.

The animation took on a more traditional narrative. Arnoldo was looking for someone and asked Freya if she had seen a cat named Vando Setina, describing him as a gray cat.

Adrien thought that name sounded off, feeling that something was not right.

Freya said she hadn't seen him. Relm mentioned that Vando had been missing for weeks. Seifer, playing with his son, mentioned that Vando had been acting strangely for the last few months, suggesting something was amiss.

The animation provided some backstory about the bar. It doubled as a motel, which attracted a wandering and often troubled crowd. Then the screen went blank again.

When it returned, it was nighttime once more. Relm stood on a balcony, smoking a cigarette. She looked introspective, reflecting on her life choices. After tossing the cigarette butt over the edge, she stepped inside, turning off the light.

As the light flickered out, a dark figure appeared next to the balcony door—a cat-like anthropomorphic shape. Adrien instantly recognized it was not Relm's silhouette.

The scene shifted to Freya's bedroom. Outside, it was raining, the sound pattering in the quiet. Freya slept fitfully in bed. Near the window was the same gray cat from the start of the animation, contorted in the same expression as the jump scare. Adrien found it disturbing that the cat was there while Freya slept peacefully.

The scene cut to Seifer's room. He was fighting in his sleep, clearly having a nightmare. It then switched to Relm’s room. She was still awake, getting ready for bed in the bathroom. When she came out, the gray cat's face appeared in the darkness of the closet, disappearing as it looked at her.

She rebooted her alarm clock and went to sleep. The cat's face showed up again, watching her with malice. The screen suddenly went blank again.

Adrien began to form a theory. Earlier in the animation, everyone had mentioned Vando, talking about his disappearance and his strange behavior. And Vando, of course, was also a gray cat. Could he be the same disturbing cat from the jump scare? Adrien didn't know but the thought lingered.

The next scene showed the bar-motel during the day. The animation switched to the private struggles of the characters, revealing the issues they faced. Seifer mourned the loss of the last family member he had. Relm received a letter from her university informing her of her expulsion due to excessive absences. Freya discovered her husband was cheating on her and wanted a divorce because she was "ugly."

Adrien hoped for some resolution, thinking the story would take a better turn. That’s what stories do, right?

Right?

The plot grew darker and creepier, revealing tragic fates for the characters. The first and perhaps saddest fate befell Seifer and his son. Seifer, battling deep depression, took his own life. The police came, and Strago began crying. Without a mother to care for him, he would have to go to an orphanage.

Freya and Arnoldo's endings were worse. Arnoldo, trying to "cheer up" Freya after her breakup, thought it wise to play a cruel prank on her. Freya was furious. She grabbed him by the collar and shouted, "YOU'RE A DAMN BITCH! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!".

She punched, kicked, and beat him relentlessly. It might have been understandable at first, but Freya went too far. Arnoldo lay still. Realizing what she had done, Freya panicked and dragged his body to a dumpster. Then she ran to the bathroom. What happened next was left to interpretation. Adrien thought she likely took her own life, like Seifer.

Relm's fate was the wildest of all. She called a school friend to explain her situation, convincing him to travel overseas with her. He agreed, and they planned to meet up at the station. She rushed to the station but was careless while crossing the street and was hit by a car.

Adrien was shocked. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for the characters, whose lives ended in sadness instead of resolution. The animation returned to the empty bar at night, focusing on the same table from the beginning. It began to shake and finally fell to the floor. Crawling out from beneath it was the gray cat—or rather, Vando.

The jump scare returned, louder and more distorted than before. The picture disappeared after about ten seconds, the sound stopped, and the screen faded to black. The animation concluded with a simple credits screen. Adrien sat in stunned silence, staring at his screen, unable to comprehend what he had just witnessed. He made himself a pot of coffee and stayed awake all night, trying to distract himself and calm his nerves.

He began to think about the animation, trying to make sense of it.

"Why did the animation end the same way it started?" It might demonstrate a time paradox where five people met their ends and the story that began that way ended the same way.

"Why didn't the story have a happy ending?" Maybe the bar was haunted. Adrien wasn’t sure.

"What was the story's meaning?" It could show the consequences of not confronting our problems. Adrien wasn't certain about this one.

Then, out of nowhere, he remembered something. He mixed up the letters in Vando’s name, hoping to uncover a hidden message. When he rearranged them, what he found sent shivers down his spine.

The anagram? "No Viste Nada." A simple phrase in Spanish. But in English, it translates to:

"YOU SAW NOTHING."