Happy Sun Daycare is a Creepypasta written by Chelsea.adams.524. The pasta centers around the titular daycare, which has been abandoned for several years. When the narrator, a reporter for an online news blog, decides to interview former employees and students who attended Happy Sun Daycare, he soon discovers some very dark secrets about it.
Can be read here.
Note: Given that Happy Sun Daycare is a short story involving some big plot twists and even some of the trope names below can spoil these twists, it's recommended you avoid reading further if you don't want to be spoiled.
Tropes associated with Happy Sun Daycare:
- Abandoned Area: The story centers around an abandoned daycare, which the narrator visits as part of their research.
- Adults Are Useless: Not implicitly stated, but it's implied that the kids' parents never suspected anything was happening.
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Mr. Smith has no idea that he's the one who had been attacking all those children due to his Lycanthropy.
- Angry Guard Dog: One is used by the daycare staff to terrorize unruly children. To make matters worse, it's actually the janitor, who has no idea that he's a werewolf.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Mr. Smith is a nice guy. Too bad he's also a werewolf.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Subverted. The only character who is given a physical description is the dog, who is stated to be rather ugly. However, The dog is actually Mr. Smith, who has no idea he's a werewolf. Plus, the dog isn't evil, just frightened and acting out of instinct.
- Crusty Caretaker: Mr. Smith. Subverted in that he's actually a nice guy. However, the rest of the staff are terrified of him. They have good reason to fear him, though. Turns out his apparent narcolepsy is actually lycanthropy and he has to take his aunt's herbal tea to keep from transforming into a werewolf.
- Daycare Nightmare: To say the daycare was not a good place for children would be an understatement. It's also implied not to be a very safe place for adults either what with a werewolf on the loose and all.
- Downer Ending: Mr. Smith is still alive. In other words there's still a werewolf on the loose. Even worse is that the daycare staff got away with all the terror they caused to the children. In addition, while none of the children were seriously injured or killed, some were bitten, so unless lycanthropy does not spread through bites in this universe like it does in most media, several of the children were cursed as well. At least Mr. Smith is a nice guy despite his Lycanthropy and appears to be living a normal peaceful life.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The staff at a daycare taking children into a dark room, doing horrible things to them and telling them this is "punishment" for bad behaviour? With recent allegations of daycare staff abusing the children under their care, the parallels are obvious (and according to Word of God, intentional).
- Fangs Are Evil: The dog that terrorizes the children is said to have large sharp teeth.
- Foreshadowing: There are plenty of clues hidden throughout the story that lead up to The Reveal at the end.
- In a couple of instances, it's mentioned that traps were set each night. Now, why would anyone set traps unless they knew there was some sort of animal about? Also, it's indicated, though never explicitly stated, that the traps may be to keep something in rather than out.
- Scott mentions in his interview that the kids he saw exiting the "Grey Door Room" were clearly traumatized by something.
- During Alice's interview, she points out that the dog had "glowing yellow eyes".
- Perhaps the biggest clues before the reveal are during Mr. Smith's corresponding letters to the narrator. Funny how a man with apparent Narcolepsy and sleepwalking habits just conveniently happens to find himself in a room where a supposed vicious dog dwells when his aunt "runs out" of the herbal tea needed to keep his condition in check, isn't it? It's almost as if he's a werewolf.
- Friend to All Children: Mr. Smith tells the narrator that he got along fine with the students at the daycare. This makes the reveal that he's a werewolf that was used to terrorize the children all the more horrifying.
- From Bad to Worse: Children with mysterious bites and scratches is bad enough. Then the narrator finds out about the "Gray Door Room" where misbehaving children are sent to be punished. He interviews one of the former students who says that she was attacked by a large ugly dog. And, at the end the narrator finds out that the children were attacked by a werewolf.
- Hell Is That Noise: The first person the narrator interviews says that she heard what sounded like children screaming and the snarls of a dog. It's what causes him to want to investigate the daycare's past further.
- Humans Are Bastards / Humans Are the Real Monsters: It's no secret this is a really common theme in the author's stories. The staff of the daycare resorted to abusing and terrorizing unruly children in any way they saw fit and often threw them in the Grey Door Room to punish them if they stepped out of line, with a vicious dog inside it that would attack them and leave them wounded and traumatized. And it gets worse - turns out the dog was a werewolf who was formerly the daycare's janitor, Mr. Smith. He wasn't just used to punish the children, he and his lycanthropy were exploited against his will by the staff of the daycare. You'd think that the staff would understand his condition and try to help out even with the fact he's no longer a human being, but they instead resorted to imprisoning him in the Grey Door Room whenever he transformed - scared, alone and hungry in the darkness - without a sliver of empathy for him nor that of the children whom they left in the room. You wouldn't blame him for acting on instinct when with another scared child too, wouldn't you? It's also implied Mr. Smith is unaware of the harm he caused to the children as a werewolf, and there's the possibility that those children could have been infected from his bites and scratches. Imagine the amounts of guilt he would feel knowing he unintentionally harmed so many young people and possibly turned them into something else just because of a group of assholes.
- Human-to-Werewolf Footprints: The narrator finds a distinctive set of footprints in the dirt at the end of the story and concludes they are definitely from that of some sort of canine. He's then horrified when he realizes it was walking on two legs.
- Involuntary Shapeshifter: Mr Smith doesn't notice when he changes into a werewolf. He assumes that it's narcolepsy.
- Ironic Name: The daycare was anything but happy and sunny.
- Karma Houdini: Those of the Happy Sun Daycare staff who punished these children by trapping them with a werewolf are never mentioned getting their comeuppance.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The dog or rather, werewolf in the story does viciously attack the children, but its behavior is more out of animal instinct and fear than any sort of malevolent thought. It's also indicated that the werewolf was oblivious to the fact it was exploited by the daycare's faculty as a form of brutally traumatizing discipline for the children attending it.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Not once is the word werewolf ever mentioned in the story. The monster is always referred to as either a "dog" or "canine". Justified in that the narrator doesn't learn that the monster is anything more than a normal dog until the very last line of the story.
- Obliviously Evil: The dog that terrorizes the children in the story. It's actually the janitor, who has no idea that he's a werewolf.
- Oh, Crap!: The narrator's realization at the end that the daycare was harboring a werewolf and not a dog to use to terrorize unruly children.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: From what is gathered, werewolves in this universe behave more like real wolves as opposed to the always violent and malicious creatures in most depictions. They also don't need a full moon to transform, instead passing out at random moments in a case similar to narcolepsy and transforming while doing so, which can even happen during the daytime. A special tea can be made to prevent the transformation.
- Primal Fear: Being attacked by a large vicious canine.
- Red Herring: It's suggested a few times in the story that the dog might just be a person in a costume. However, it's pretty clear throughout the story (even before The Reveal) that this certainly is not the case. The most obvious being that it would be very unlikely, if not outright impossible, for someone in a cheap costume to inflict the types of scratches and bites on the children.
- Reluctant Monster: Mr. Smith, who happens to be a nice guy who has no idea he's a werewolf used to terrorize children. The attacks imply his behavior is more that of a confused wild animal rather than anything malicious.
- The Reveal: The ending of the pasta reveals that the animal attacking the children wasn't a dog but a werewolf."Since when do dogs walk on two legs?"
- Room 101: The "Gray Door Room" which particularly ill-behaved children were sent as punishment.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The author stated that the story was written after seeing a report in the news about several staff at a daycare being arrested for physically punishing unruly children.
- Shout-Out: Mr. Smith's aunt makes him a bitter-tasting tea that keeps his narcolepsy (actually his lycanthropy) in check, similar to the Wolfsbane Potion.
- Sleepwalking: Mr. Smith believes he has this habit due to him somehow waking up in the "Grey Door Room" at times. In reality he's actually transformed into a werewolf at this point and mistakes this for being in a dream state.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Mr. Smith, due to him having Lycanthropy.
- Teens Are Monsters: Played with. On the one hand, Mr. Smith never mentioned he did any particular misdeeds when he was a teenager. On the other hand, he is a literal monster since he first became a werewolf during his teenage years.
- Tragic Monster: The supposed dog is actually Mr. Smith, who happens to be a werewolf, and his wolf form is an innocent wild animal that kept on being thrown into a pen with a scared child and panicking.
- The Unreveal: It's never stated how Mr. Smith became a werewolf.
- Unwitting Pawn: Mr. Smith is a werewolf, and during his transformation, he is used to punish misbehaving children at the daycare.
- Werewolf Theme Naming: Possibly averted. The name "Mr. Smith" doesn't fit the trope, but the narrator uses fake names for everyone in the story to protect their privacy, so his real name still might.
- Wham Line: "Since when do dogs walk on two legs?"
- Would Hurt a Child: Several children were bitten or scratched by the "dog".
