This was inspired by this GQ thread about a “haunted” painting called “The Hands Resist Him.” I’m 99% sure the backstory is codswallop, but it’s a good creepy story. What are some other good creepy/haunted/weird/unnerving things that I can read about on the internet and ruin a good night’s sleep with? Links appreciated.
If my Grandmothers vampire story (according to her a true tale) doesn’t creep you out just a little…
*A young maiden died on her wedding day, after being left at the altar by a cad, who seduced her by a promise to marry, etc. Broken heart or suicide? Anyway, the A/H Emperor had sent a young RC priest to take the place of the good and holy Orthodox priest. The ignorant and arrogant RC priest refused to let the girl be buried in consecrated ground. She was buried in her wedding gown and veil. That (?) night, she crept out and went to the door of the cad, and asked to be let in, promising more kisses. He was such a cad he hadn’t even know she died, so he let her in- an important detail here is that she wore her veil so he couldn’t see her face, which was of course horrible. She drank his blood and floated back to her grave. And the way she told it “And the maiden crept and crept up to the door, her eyes glowing under her veil, and scratched to be let in “I have more kisses for you, don’t you want my kiiiisssses”. So he looked through the window and saw her there in her white wedding dress, her face covered by her veil. And since he had been to Vienna (said with a scornful note)and wasn’t scared of peasant tales, he let her in. And the last thing he felt was her cold as the grave hands on his neck, and the last thing he smelt was her breath like that of the charnel house, and the last thing he saw was her eyes, exposed at last from under her veil, glowing red in the dark like those of the hounds of hell…” The next night she arose again, and went to her home, she scratched upon the window shutter of her youngest brother (portrayed as around our age, 8-12 or so), crying she was so cold and thirsty, and he let her in, in his ignorance. Now, she didn’t want to hurt her little brother but the hunger rose in her. She fell upon him, but she was crying also as she didn’t want to do this- so the family broke in and drove her off/she fled. The details of was she physical or just a ghost is a little unclear.
The family went to the RC priest who laughed at them and their ignorant peasant folklore. So the family went to my family (the local lords), who sent out Cossacks to find the Orthodox Priest (this was very exciting as the Cossack had to ride in all direction, riding their horses to death as they needed to find the Father before the moon rose!). They found the holy man living as a hermit and then they (Cossacks, Voivode, family, hermit and all) went to the suicides graveyard, and while the Cossacks held back the RC priest, they all dug up the maiden’s body- which when they pulled back her veil appeared flushed with life and with blood on her lips, and dirt under her long nails. Of course, this was just as the moon was rising! The Cossacks staked her and much fresh blood came out. Then the Orthodox hermit blessed her and they reburied her with all ceremony in the consecrated graveyard. The young Jesuit left that day, never to be seen again. The Holy Father returned to his rightful position as spiritual leader, they buried the cad in the appropriate manner and everyone lived happily ever after.
*
How did you run across this? And what is it?
My grandmother was a devout but superstitious Catholic. One night she needed to be up early in the morning, but her alarm clock was broken. She prayed to the souls in Purgatory to wake her, thinking she was offering them a chance to work off some of their debt. In the morning she was awakened by the sound of hundreds of fingernails scraping against the wooden frame of her bed. She was too terrified to look until the sound stopped, and she never did it again.
No offense to your grandmother, but that’s the kind of thing that, when somebody does it in a horror movie, you say, “You moron! What are you thinking?! You are SO dead.” 
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That said, Grandpa wasn’t the practical joker type, was he?
She wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, no.
Funny that possibility never occured to me before. I just assumed that she imagined it in a hypnagogic state. As a matter of fact, my grandfather did have a strange sense of humour. Whenever anyone asked him where someone had gone, he always answered the same way: “He went talastroo [all astrew? tall as true?] with a paper in his hand.” He never explained what he meant, and he took the secret to his grave.
Posted this one before, but: Ted’s creepy cave story.
Here’s Encyclopedia Dramatica’s page on Creepypasta. Lots of ghost stories and some freaky pictures on there.
I sleep alone, but “The Bad Dream” still manages to wig me out at night when I’m trying to sleep.
This actually happened to me.
Back in about 1978 or '79, my cousin and I were out riding our horses along the back roads near the stable we were boarding the horses at. My gelding was a reliable kind of horse that didn’t spook at anything, ever. We came upon this old, deserted house, obviously it had been vacant for many years. We thought it would be neat to explore, and rode up the driveway; the front yard had an old, broken down picket fence around it, the gate torn off. I turned my horse toward the gate and he just froze, refusing to go another step forward. I tried everything, even getting off and leading him, and the more I tried to force him, the more freaked out he got. My cousin’s horse wouldn’t go any closer to the house either.
So we tried going to the old barn instead, and still, the horses refused, eyes rolling, nostrils flared. We could NOT get them on the property. We finally gave up and rode on. I could feel my horse physically relax under me as we left.
When we got back to the stable, we were talking to the woman that worked there and told her of the horse’s reactions. She didn’t ASK where we had been… she TOLD us what road we had been on, and where the house was,
Seems that back in the 50’s, the farmer that lived there went a little crazy and killed his wife, mother-in-law and two kids in the house, and then went out to the barn and hung himself.
No mystery here. Horses can smell blood, and possibly even the predatorial pheromones of rage. Even if the original scents had attenuated, enough animals had probably marked the territory as “unsafe” due to those original scents that the horses had no trouble smelling it.
Bedbugs are pretty common (possibly getting commoner), feed on human blood and procreate by injecting sperm through the equivalent of a hypodermic needle traumatically penetrating the female.
I didn’t want to hijack the thread mentioned in the OP, but since you asked here, I introduce you to creepy doll artist Hans Bellmer
(not porno, but NSFW)
Maybe no real mystery, but it was still creepy as hell… one of those moments when you can feel icy fingers caressing the back of your neck, y’know? It still creeps me out to think about it.
Yeesh. I’m gonna quote it here cause it’s so short:
I am dying-- DYING-- to figure out a way to train one of my friends’ toddlers to walk into Daddy’s bedroom and say that. 
There are more non-human cells in your body than there are human cells.
That means there are more things living in you than there are… well… you!
Hm, so that’s how horses behave when they smell blood…? Luckily no one ever cut himself in a stable, the owner would be in for some serious cleaning, hopefully not getting angry while scrubbing. 
Looks likes some of the creatures from Silent Hill 2 :eek:
FUCK! Now I wont be able to sleep tonight!!! :eek::eek::eek:
Y’all SUCK!
That cave story? Creepy, but I can handle it.
That House story? EVERY FRACKING LIGHT WILL BE ON IN MY HOUSE TONIGHT, the sofas will block the door, and chicken fat will be smeared on the entrance ways!
Curse you for making me click that link!
Which link is that?