During the early 2000's, when there was a
boom in the energy drink market, one company
decided to join the competition.
In this era there was a lot of attention on
energy drinks, brought on by their heavy sponsorships,
notably in sports.
While the giants like Red Bull, Monster, and
Rockstar battled, smaller grass-roots companies
popped up to try gain a foothold in the market
space.
One such company was named “Maxium”.
Their pitch was simple, it was an energy drink
for the common man.
Rather than selling it on the idea of high
octane caffeine, they sold it on the basis
that it was like a sweeter morning coffee.
Its unique angle made it an instant hit in
the province it debuted in.
People were lining up to stockpile on them,
since it was less hassle than making cups
of coffee throughout the day, and it was cheaper
than going to a Starbucks.
People started hoarding them to ration through
the day.
This initially caused a shortage.
Investments poured in, and production was
ramped up.
It didn't take long for the Maxium company
to expand.
For the brief period they reigned, they were
one of the top selling beverages in their
state.
But this paradigm didn't last long.
It started with some confusing business decisions.
They started pumping heavy amounts of caffeine
into a sports version of the product.
There were shortages of the original Maxium
energy drink in order to expand into the sports
drink market.
This obviously drove the 'common man' market,
the unique angle they hit, away.
This new drink wasn't a hit, but for a reason
beyond what you'd expect.
The first reported case flew under the radar,
seen as a one off from a teen who irresponsibly
chugged too much Maxium Sport.
The kid was barely breathing, just about stable
from his staggered hyperventilation.
His heart-rate was beyond normal for even
high exertion exercise.
He was eventually resuscitated, and that was
that.
Then another case came in.
Then another.
Then another.
Each stranger than the last.
Some of the smaller symptoms seemed in line
with negative effects of such a product.
A faster heart-rate.
Excessive sweating.
Loss of focus.
But these weren't the cases that were being
rushed to the hospital.
People were reporting to have experienced
heart palpitations, uncontrollable vomiting,
and extreme head-pains.
Just as the doctors had a grasp of the situation,
and started correlating a cause from post
treatment interviews, more patients rolled
in.
One woman was preparing for a game of tennis,
when her friends found her scratching at her
face, screaming about the pain.
When they finally wrestled her to stop, they
watched as she broke down and wept, streams
of red running from under her eyes.
A student was staying up revising for an upcoming
test, when his mother walked in and found
him having a seizure.
She rushed him to the ER and explained the
situation.
What confused the staff was when she told
them he didn't suffer from any form of epilepsy.
Stranger yet- what they diagnosed was that
the boy wasn't having a seizure at all, but
rather he was convulsing from a rapid amount
of muscle spasms.
They could only liken it to being electrocuted,
his muscles were constantly firing off at
such a rapid rate.
After a big investigation spanning over a
few months, it was found that the only correlation
between these cases was the Maxium Sport energy
drink.
Though they never found what specifically
caused these various issues, it wasn't long
for the company to shut down, having to pay
a fortune in many legalities and medical bills.
However the story doesn't end here.
All these reports that were published in journals,
newspapers and on TV, were all the cases that
were chosen to be publicly acknowledged.
These reports were all the physical cases.
There were some testimonies that are very
hard to find, either through censorship, or
a lack of archiving, that flew under the public
radar.
They were most likely deemed too unrealistic
for anyone reading the news to believe.
These were the mentality symptoms.
One patient was comatose for a few days.
When she woke; she immediately fell into hysterics.
She clawed at any nearby staff and had to
be sedated.
When staff finally got her to a state where
she could coherently communicate, all she
did was beg for death, and for 'him' to leave
her alone.
A few days later she was found dead by her
own hands.
Authorities found a half drank can of Maxium
Sport in her car.
A businessman was reported for his strange
behaviour.
He CC'd everyone in his company complaining
about a guy who kept following him, though
it was hard to read the terribly typed sentences.
The grammar hinted that he was shaking uncontrollably
while typing.
The last thing he typed was that he was going
to chase after the guy next time he saw him
since no one was helping him.
He was found splattered on the pavement, and
his 15th storey window smashed open.
His secretary only noted about his screaming
in his office, though she thought he was just
grilling someone over the phone.
The only other notable thing she pointed out
was that she gave him the new Maxium Sport
energy drink that he asked her to get.
There were some reports that the police ended
up dismissing during this period.
Though they differed somewhat from each other,
there was a common theme.
Some individuals rang in terrified for their
lives, all complaining about a strange figure
that stalked them.
They described scenes of them trying to go
to bed, only to see a shade in the corner.
Once they focused on it, the shade got closer,
until it revealed itself as a figure slowly
floating towards them.
His face was gaunt and twisted in a shape
of pain.
A common detail between these testimonies
is the blood leaking down the left side of
his head.
Supposedly the haunting figure only did one
thing- repeatedly asked them to go to the
Maxium factory.
These complaints were only around during Maxium
Sports' brief release, and stopped soon after
the company closed.
There's a theory floating around online about
this.
Just after Maxium Sport's inception, a crucial
founding member of the staff 'left'.
There were three main owners.
Two of them were heavy investors, and the
third, Randal Walker, headed marketing.
When Randal left, the other two took charge
and radically changed the company.
The other two were heavily into the idea of
stepping into the sports drink market, as
evident from their past postings on social
media, and their enthusiasm for their new
product: Maxium Sport.
Randal on the other hand was the genius behind
the original pitch that spearheaded the company
into the spotlight.
It's theorised that Randal didn't leave on
good terms, despite what the other two owners
fervently announced.
Instead it's thought that Randal was ousted
when the other two confronted him about his
promise of putting them in the energy drink
scene.
They wanted to be in the same market as Monster
and Red Bull, oblivious to how well their
unique product was doing in its open market
space.
This much is easy to discern if you read between
the lines.
However the theories go deeper.
One person on a now deleted blog claimed to
have briefly work security at the Maxium factory.
One day he was e-mailed to leave immediately,
and never come back to work.
He only read it once he arrived to his shift.
Initially he was disappointed, however no
matter how much he thought back, he felt he
had never done anything wrong, or at least
egregious to be fired on the spot.
This made him suspicious, so just before some
people came to escort him out, he made a copy
of the whole weeks security footage on a USB
stick, and hid it.
Once home he combed through the files to see
if anything was off.
At first everything worked fine, however the
closer he got to the night before, the worse
the footage became.
It flickered at intervals, sometimes jumping
minutes ahead.
It showed signs of heavy analogue damage,
despite it being fresh footage.
The last thing he saw was a late night meeting
by the three owners.
By then the footage was becoming hard to make
out.
It jumped around and flickered sporadically,
however the security guard just about noticed
the two aggressors beat the third figure over
the head.
Just before the image became full static,
he saw them dump the fallen figure in one
of the mixing vats, and static just rolled.
This lines up to the report of an unidentified
body found in the factory not long after,
all identifiable features erased by the chemical
the body was bathed in.
The security guard yanked the USB stick out
when, between the static, a strange warped
face kept flicking in and out.
Its face was gaunt and twisted in pain.
The only colour was blood running down the
left side of its face.
When he reinserted the stick to try save the
transfer the file, his computer showed the
drive as wiped, the error stating the stick
wasn't removed properly.
It's unknown how much of this story can be
verified.
It's also unknown the whereabouts of Randal
Walker.
A lot of people accept the explanation that
he moved far away with his large share of
money when he left at the height of the business.
Most are more concerned about the many affected
by the tainted final product, some still recovering
to this day.
However the locals try their best to never
bring any of this up, opting to want to forget
it all, and hope this dark part of their towns
history fades away.
