Berwyn sighed as he entered the windowless catalog room at Tower College, Chestershire University. The hyena set his tweed coat on his chair and looked at the various strange artifacts and dusty relics he needed to catalog. Berwyn was part of a team of graduate library researchers, students that had graduated from the University, but were in financial debt to the University. As a way to pay off their debts, these graduates became employed by one of the University’s Colleges in their library departments, which would use their knowledge and experience in building their extensive library and museum collections. Unfortunately for Berwyn, he was placed on the team for Tower College, which specialized in cursed or dangerous artifacts.

​Despite the danger that came with such a position, Berwyn was quite jovial and fun to have around. Berwyn and his colleagues were quite close, brothers in arms in a sense as they retrieved these dangerous items and archived them. However, given that Berwyn was a former athlete for the College, Berwyn preferred the action of being out in the field rather than the more clerical aspects of his library work.

Unfortunately, there were no field assignments that day, and his coworkers—the badger Rowan and the opossum Edgar—were off working on research projects of their own. That meant the hyena was stuck working on his own.
​
As Berwyn settled into his work, filling and lighting his pipe to get his noggin turning, the hyena spotted an item that stuck out more than the usual medieval or Renaissance era relics—a film canister. Now, it wasn’t unheard of more modern strange items to end up at the library, but it was uncommon enough for Berwyn to pay attention.

​“Hullo, what’s this?” asked Berwyn as he picked up the rusty old canister and moved it around in his paws. The note card taped to the canister didn’t provide much information on what was inside, only the following words.

Film Reel found in the collection of Animation Historian Sir John Cavendish
Believed to be an early work of the German Animator and
Occultist Lennard Von Keiner
Circa 1920’s
Title: Unknown
Danger Level: Unknown
​
​ “Huh, that’s strange,” muttered Berwyn as he furrowed his brow and puffed his pipe. “Ye mean no one has had the nerve to give it a looksee?”

The hyena opened the canister, carefully unspooled the film, and held it up to the light. From what the researcher could see, it showed the same still image of a dark cobblestone street devoid of any furs at all.

“Odd, maybe something happens when it’s played?” mused Berwyn. The hyena shrugged as he wound the film back up. “Guess there’s only way to find out.”

Berwyn wasn’t necessarily excited to watch the film reel; after all, he didn’t know exactly what he was getting into. However, this was part of the hyena’s job, and it couldn’t be too dangerous, could it?

Berwyn signed in the library’s theater and set up the film reel to the projector and flipped it on. The projector whirred to life as the reels began turning, and in a few moments the black and white cartoon displayed on the theater screen.

The cartoon opened up with the black and white cobblestone street at night with gas lamps flickering in the background. Berwyn leaned forward in his seat next to the projector and puffed his pipe, watching for any new details to emerge on screen.

“Right, so what’s your trick?” asked Berwyn, eyes glued on the cartoon. “Why are you in our collection?”

For a few moments, nothing changed at all on the screen, and the hyena was left scratching his head. But as the cartoon played on, there was movement on the screen. About six gloved, detached hands began walking on their fingers into view on either side of the screen. The gloves met in the middle and walked in a circle, as though deep in thought, with each glove keeping two fingers behind their back.

Berwyn let out a sigh of relief, at least there was something going on in the cartoon, rather than just watching the same image over and over. One of the gloves, the one closest to the viewers, stopped and looked towards the audience before jumping in excitement. The other gloves stopped in place and looked at the one jumping, before the middle glove pointed out—to Berwyn.

“What the devil?” asked Berwyn as he removed his pipe from his mouth, his eyes transfixed to the screen.

The other gloves watched the leader make a waving motion to go towards Berwyn, and the six together floated up—and out of the screen into the theater itself. The hyena stumbled to his feet and tried turning the projector off, but the switch wouldn’t budge. Before Berwyn could react, the gloves grabbed the hyena and lifted him from the ground. Berwyn thrashed in the grip of the hands, trying desperately to free himself as they pulled him towards the screen.

“Let me go you rotters, I’m an Englishman,” growled Berwyn as he jerked his body. “A subject of the queen!”

Berwyn’s words fell on deaf ears, if the gloves had any, and pulled the hyena into the black and white cartoon. Once inside the screen, the gloves dropped Berwyn unceremoniously onto his rear. Cartoon stars circled Berwyn’s head before he stood up and gave a confused look, realizing he was now inside the cursed animated film. Before the hyena could fully comprehend what exactly was happening, the gloves went right to work.

Two gloves gripped Berwyn’s shoulders and held him in place as three of the gloves pulled out a black paint can and paint brushes. Berwyn tried to lift up his hands to protect himself, but the gloves were relentless, brushing him with the black paint and giving him the appearance of an old cartoon character version of himself, down to the pipe clenched in his teeth.

Berwyn reeled in a daze as the paint took effect, and once his senses returned to him, his mouth moved, but no sound came out. A moment later, the screen switched to a title card with dialogue typed on it.

“W-What have ye done to me?”

The screen flashed back to Berwyn as the five hands kept him in place. The sixth glove returned to the screen, holding a pocket watch. The hyena’s eyes grew comically large as he wiggled in the grip of the gloves.

“N-No, please, not that! Anything but that!” said another title card.

The watch began swinging before Berwyn’s face, and his eyes began swirling as he was forced to watch.

“Are ye sure he’s in the theater?” asked Rowan as the badger walked side by side with his opossum co-worker.

“The front desk said he reserved it,” answered Edgar matter-of-factly as the two turned the corner towards the AV section of the library. “He was working on cataloging from what the boss said.”

Rowan chuckled as he placed his pipe in his coat pocket. “Of course Berwyn gets the fun job, meanwhile we’re stuck pouring over books all afternoon.”

Edgar scoffed as he held his opossum head high. “That’s my favorite part of the job. Much less dangerous.”

The badger shook his head with a smile; of course his bookworm of a friend would say that. “Don’t tell me ye wouldn’t enjoy a movie—day.”

The two stopped dead in their tracks as they look at the flickering film screen before them. The film projector was still running, and Rowan went to turn it off, but the switch remained firmly on.

“Rowan,” hissed Edgar as he pointed at the film screen. “Look!”

“What?” asked Rowan as he glanced up at the screen.

The film started over from the beginning, showing the title card of the cartoon.

Bumbling Berwyn in
“The Gang’s All Here”

To the shock of the two librarians, the animated version of Berwyn jovially strolls onto the screen, happily smoking his pipe as small smoke clouds puff up. The cartoon hyena turns to the screen and smiles, excitedly waving hello as his eyes swirl from the spell he’s under.

“B-Berwyn?” asked Edgar in disbelief, frozen in fear.

Rowan runs to the theater door and tries to open it, but it won’t budge. The badger turns back towards the screen in time to see a title card pop up.

“Hullo fellows! Lovely evenin’ for a romp! Now don’t be shy, get on up here!”

As the cartoon comes back on screen, Berwyn does a goofy dance in place as six gloved hands appear from behind the hyena—and out of the screen towards the stunned librarians.

—-
A big thanks for the wonderful toon version of Berwyn by Dungeon_Turtle on X. I loved it so much that I just had to write a quick story to go with it.