The Chameleons are the titular characters and primary antagonists of the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of the Chameleons".
Biography[]
Janice Robinson and her best friend Sharon are at the pet store one day when a red-haired boy encourages them to look at a chameleon. When Janice tries to pet it, the reptile bites her, and she knocks over its cage, allowing it to escape. The boy laughs and recites a rhyme: "Bite you once, bite you twice, a little water, pay the price." Then he runs off. The chameleon follows the girls to Janice's house, and that night when no one else is around, it bites her again. To Janice's surprise, the chameleon morphs into an exact clone of her. It tries to throw water on her, but she screams and Sharon, who is spending the night, rushes into Janice's bedroom and it disappears. Janice tells her friend what happened, but she doesn't believe her.
The next morning, Janice wakes up and thinks it was all a dream. But when she enters the bathroom, the evil chameleon sprays her water from the showerhead. Janice turns into a chameleon and the doppelganger takes her place. Later that day, Sharon notices that her friend is acting strange. She comes home with a box full of chameleons and Sharon sees her eat a live goldfish out of a tank. Later the girls are drinking some juice and Real Janice bites her replacement. When Evil Janice angrily grabs the chameleon, Sharon realizes that the person she's hanging out with isn't her friend. Evil Janice reveals chameleons are going to take over the world and the box she brought home with her contains her family members. Then Real Janice's dad calls her, so Evil Janice throws the chameleon into the garbage disposal and runs off. Sharon rescues her friend and later on, she lures Evil Janice outside so that Real Janice can bite her a second time. She does, and suddenly there are two Janices in front of her. Sharon is unsure which one to spray with water, until one of the Janices takes the box of chameleons and throws it down a nearby well. Sharon then decides to spray the other one.
Later that night, we see "Janice" retrieving the other chameleons from the well, revealing that Sharon sprayed the real Janice and trusted the wrong one. The chameleon tells her friends that she knew they'd be smart enough to find the bucket and it turns out the real Janice turned back into a chameleon fell down the well, and is most likely dead. She laughs maniacally, and the story ends.