The Creepy Thread (Stories and Links Welcome)

[Hypno-Toad]

@Meatros

Around the Web:
Ted’s Caving Page (Based on this story - PDF)
Reddit No Sleep:
Penpals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

I’ve Ted’s caving page before and enjoyed it. But I just read the Nosleep pages. The author sure did a great job of tying the stories together with callbacks.

[Infovore]

Ooh, cool, creepy stuff! I just read through all six parts of the Penpals series, and liked it so much I bought the book.

I read the Holders series last year (I think I found that off a Dope link too) and it was nice to revisit it again.

Love the creepy stuff.

[Meatros]

@Gesturing_Mildly

Well, the third is Ramsey Campbell’s “The Pattern.”

Not sure the other two. I always list these three as my favorites, but then got to doubting myself and thought surely there must be two I like better. I just can’t think of them!

Why does that sound so familiar? I’m going to have to check it out.

Right now I’m listening to the audiobook ‘John Dies at the End’, which is really good and I felt I should mention it in this thread.

[Gedd]

Once upon a time on SDMB I found a creepy story someone wrote about a group of US soldiers (in present day) staying in an old Nazi HQ in Germany the seemed haunted. Ring any bells? I don’t recognize any of the links as being it.

[Imago]

I think it might be in one of the VVC threads, Gedd. I remember reading the same one- whispers of “You’ll be alright” in people’s ears and that kind of thing?

[DMark]

Here is my short thread about a true creepy story that I wrote up and won a $100 prize in my old hometown newspaper.

[Balance]

It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since I received that curious parcel. Some people found that affair a trifle creepy. (Others engaged in fish-duels, but what can you expect on the Dope? :D)

[Meatros]

@Balance

It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since I received that curious parcel. Some people found that affair a trifle creepy. (Others engaged in fish-duels, but what can you expect on the Dope? :D)

I just finished it - that was excellent!

[Balance]

@Meatros

I just finished it - that was excellent!

Heh–you got to read straight through it. It was originally spread over the thirteen days leading up to Halloween, and I think people were getting ready to lynch me by the finale.

[scratch_llll]

@Meatros

Around the Web:
1

This one creeps me in a very personal way because of a recurring dream I had as a kid from about seven to ten. I would wake up outside my house, sometimes only ten feet away and sometmes a hundred yards, and stare at the porch light and dark windows knowing that everyone was asleep inside. Including me. I knew that my body lay in that house and only my consciousness was outside. Somehow I would have to make it back to my body but I didn’t know how. I could see the stars in the night sky and the moonlight on the pasture, the way the light from the porch cast shadows, all of it very clear. I could look down and see grass or gravel, sometimes with frost on a cold night, but I could see no part of me. It scared me deeply because I felt so alone and didn’t know if I could ever get back. I would though. I would lay awake a bit after savoring the feel of being in my own skin and praying I never had that dream again.

[shantih]

@Gedd

Once upon a time on SDMB I found a creepy story someone wrote about a group of US soldiers (in present day) staying in an old Nazi HQ in Germany the seemed haunted. Ring any bells? I don’t recognize any of the links as being it.

I remember that one, too: Humper-Monkey’s Ghost Story

[Gedd]

@shantih

I remember that one, too: Humper-Monkey’s Ghost Story

Yep, that’s it!

[Meatros]

I found this today:

Odessa is not far from the capital of Ukraine - Kiev. Under Odessa consists the biggest katakombs in the world. Their total length is more than 2500 km, so this katakombs are much more bigger than Paris katakombs.
In fact Odessa katakombs are much more “younger” than katakombs in Paris.
Stone that was mined there was used for the construction of the city from 1794 till 1980s.
Nowadays these mines are absolutelly abandoned!
During the World War II a lot of citizens were hiding in catacombs. A lot of them used to live there for a year and more. So even today it is possible to find weapons, equipment and even dead bodies.
Every year a lot of explorers lost and even die there.
Unfortunatelly our government try to close all the entrances to catacombs, but you know, it`s impossible.

Starting at post five:

As I said earlier, a lot of people lost and even dead under Odessa.
Maybe this photo will shock you.
It`s a dead body of the 19-years old girl, who has lost the right way in the maze. Her body was found only after 2 years.

She went with her friends into katakombs to celebrate a 2005s new year. It was a very big bad-experiment group, so probably when in the morning drunk group left katakombs, they forgot girl inside. It was a very long and painful death! She couldn’t find an entrance.
She was taken out only in the end of 2007 аnd buried.

During the time she was inside her “friends” didn’t try to take her bоdy out. Probably they were frightened. А few explorers were comming inside to make photos of her. I made this photo in Аpril 2005. Аfter thаt I called police, but they did not want to go inside. Her body was far from the exit.
In the end my friend, а famous journalist, wrote аn article with а lot of photos of this poor girl аnd showed it to the government. After this during 24 hours her body has been taken out.

Another poster (ActionSatisfaction Esq. ) writes this, which creeped me out:

Imagine the sheer terror she must’ve felt as she wandered around lost. Especially after her flashlight went out. She probably screamed until her throat bled. Desperately searching for a way out, believing she heard or felt a gust of wind…or perhaps mistaking a hypnogognic flash for light. I wonder at what point she gave up, sat down and died. Or if maybe she never gave up at all, and died there crawling across the floor, fighting in vain towards the possibility of an exit. I wonder what she saw when the hallucinations set in, as her organs failed from dehydration there in the darkness.

[Meatros]

The History of Halloween:

Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Much more on the website.

[Meatros]

Not really creepy, per say, more strange (and actually thoroughly debunked), is the story of John Titor.

His story can be found here:

Although there is debate over the exact date it started, on November 02, 2000, a person calling themselves Timetravel_0, and later John Titor, started posting on a public forum that he was a time traveler from the year 2036.

One of the first things he did was post pictures of his time machine and its operations manual. As the weeks went by, more and more people began questioning him about why he was here, the physics of time travel and his thoughts about our time. He also posted on other forums including the now non-existent Art Bell site. In his posts John Titor entertained, angered, frightened and even belittled those who engaged him in conversation.

On March 21, 2001, John Titor told us he would be leaving our and returning to 2036. After that, he was never heard from again. Speculation and investigation about who John Titor was and why he was online continues to this day.

Although it may be easy to dismiss all this as science fiction, most people who read his posts agree that there is something very haunting about John Titor and what he said. In addition, and open to more debate, he also made a series of predictions and comments that eerily seem to be coming true.

Unfortunately, I never spoke directly to John Titor but there are many out there who have and continue to wonder about their experience. As you get deeper and deeper into the story, you will find his posts, links to other sites about him, downloads and speculative information attributed to him after he left. I have taken the posts and organized them by date and subject. My editorial work is copyrighted but the unedited posts and the people who experienced it are in the public domain can be found on other sites listed inside.

As you read, please try to keep two things in mind:

1. John appeared to answer nearly every question that was asked of him over the 4-month period he was online. Because of that, many people neglected to read the previous posts and asked similar or exact questions he had already answered. It may offer a glimpse of what a time traveler goes through when having the same conversation again and again.

2. These posts were written before 911, the Discovery accident and the second gulf war. Many people believe John may have known of these events and dropped clues without actually referring to them. It’s also widely agreed that he made several predictions about future physics discoveries that have materialized as he stated.

[Gesturing_Mildly]

Then there’s this:
Let Me Hear Your War Cry

[The_wind_of_my_soul]

I don’t have anything to add, but wanted to say thanks for posting enough reading material to keep me fascinated (and under-productive) for days.

[expectopatronum]

@DMark

Here is my short thread about a true creepy story that I wrote up and won a $100 prize in my old hometown newspaper.

i remember reading that story before in one of the creepy stories threads floating around out there (i love digging those up, especially this time of year) and it has always stuck in my mind. shudder.

[Meatros]

La Llorona - Weeping Woman of the Southwest (wiki):

The legend of La Llorona (pronounced “LAH yoh ROH nah”), Spanish for the Weeping Woman, has been a part of Hispanic culture in the Southwest since the days of the conquistadores. The tall, thin spirit is said to be blessed with natural beauty and long flowing black hair. Wearing a white gown, she roams the rivers and creeks, wailing into the night and searching for children to drag, screaming to a watery grave.

Hellhoundslair - a collection of stories

A Voice from the Past:

Katrina Pierce was writing the daily specials on her menu board as she had done every day since Feb. 19 when a man behind her whispered, “What are you doing?”

The Disappearing Girl Part 1, Part 2

Author’s note: This is the first of a two-part series about the Torres family who, after moving into their new home, discovered something was already there.

The Ghost in the Mirror: Phantoms or Psychological Illusions?

Do you remember playing “Bloody Mary” when you were a child? You know, the game where you stared into a mirror and chanted the name of the blood-witch mentioned above three times, with the eminent risk that a devilish ghost would emerge from the reflective surface and rip your face off?

Strigoi:

In Romanian mythology, strigoi (English: poltergeist)[1] are the troubled souls of the dead rising from the grave. Some strigoi can be living people with certain magical properties. Some of the properties of the strigoi include: the ability to transform into an animal, invisibility, and the propensity to drain the vitality of victims via blood loss. Strigoi are also known as immortal vampires.

A legend:

The Witch’s Kiss

As mentioned previously, the strigoi have another power quite unique to ghouls – the ability to create progeny. A strigoi vii may actually perform a partial Embrace, an act that dooms a mortal into becoming strigoi, a gradual transformation that may last over ten long and painful years. Not any mortal, however, may be so transformed by the Witch’s Kiss; the strigoi are bound to select their victims from a rather exclusive pool. Candidates include witches and satanists, the unbaptized and the excommunicated, children born with a caul or a vestigial tail, the congenitally deformed, and the seventh son of a seventh son.

The Witch’s Kiss is carried on much like a proper Embrace. The strigoi vii must drain the blood of her victim, a process that usually takes over a week of nightly visitations. Then, upon the last visit, the dying human must be coerced into drinking the blood of the strigoi vii. This is usually followed by a terrible sickness and a long convalescence, and often the victim never fully recovers his health. Not that it really matters, for by that time the unfortunate soul is doomed. After a few years of dormancy, the metamorphosis begins, and the progeny will begin to acquire the characteristics of a strigoi vii. One of the first signs is often a shift in personality – almost as if something good inside the person has just curdled and died, leaving behind a sour and vindictive shell. People begin avoiding the poor wretch, and many notice the appearance of a faint but foul odor. Deformities begin appearing or growing worse, the skin dries up and starts oozing pus, and bones begin to elongate. Soon the progeny begins to feel his whole nature changing, and as a taste for normal food atrophies, a desire for fresh blood begins to assert itself with a maddening tenacity. The discipline of Nascence develops, and he begins to notice that his very presence has the power to profoundly disturb the sleeping – an effect that gives him a strange sense of renewed energy. By this time, he has either been noticed by the Strigoi or will seek them out himself. Upon his first taste of Strigoi vitae, the transformation is complete.

If a mortal cannot find Strigoi blood to insure his ghoulish future, the transformation will eventually take a turn for the worse, and his body will begin to decompose. If no infusions of vitae are allowed to renew his tainted blood, he will die within ten to fifteen years of receiving the Witch’s Kiss.

There is one interesting rumor, however, that may provide a glimpse of possible redemption. Some say that the transformation can be reversed at any point before the progeny drinks Strigoi blood and becomes a full strigoi vii. All that need be done is locate the creature that infected him and kill her, driving a stake through her heart and filling the mouth of her severed head with holy wafers…

[WolfpackJeep]

@Meatros

Ha! Thanks - I was actually asking for the sequel to ‘The Hands That Resist him’, but that is a good find as well!

Resistance at the Threshold!

(You may need to scroll down just a bit.)