More Creepypasta: Origins of Byard's Leap

Byard's Leap is a small hamlet, west of Cranwell in Lincolnshire, associated with various legends, including the origin of the name.

The story goes that there was a witch called Old Meg, an evil crone who plagued the local villagers from her cave in a spinney near a crossroads on Ermine Street, here called High Dike. A local champion came forward in response to the villagers' requests, and he asserted that he could kill her by driving a sword through her heart. To select a horse suitable for this task, he went to a pond where horses drank and dropped a stone in the pond, selecting the horse that reacted quickest, and this horse was known locally as 'Blind Byard', as he was blind.

The champion went to the witch’s cave and called her out, but the witch refused, saying she was eating and he would have to wait. However, she crept up behind him and sank her long nails into the horse who ran, leaping over a 60 foot cliff. The champion regained control of the horse when they reached the pond, pursued by the witch, where he turned and thrust his sword into her heart, and she fell in the pond and drowned.

The spot where Blind Byard landed is marked by four posts in the ground with horseshoes on, and a commemorative stone. The sharply cut small valley in the limestone, which is now smoothed over by plowing, is as likely a site as any for the dramatic events, assuming they happened.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The Cradle Replacements

In rural southern Illinois, a toy company began selling "realistic" baby dolls to expectant mothers. But apparently, after the mother had her child, the toy baby would start crying. Eventually the "rocking motion" advertised to calm it down wouldn't work, and you couldn't get it to stop without shaking it. Eventually, when it started crying the parent would have to beat it, and the beatings and thrashings would have to get harder and harder to get it to be quiet. The only thing that seemed to shut the baby doll up permanently was to bash its head against the wall, destroying whatever mechanism triggered the crying. On more than one occasion though, neighbors called the authorities to report child abuse, and when the police arrived they found the bloody remains of infants smeared across the walls and the floor. In most cases, the mother couldn't understand why the police were there, she just "got rid of the stupid doll," as she rocked a baby-shaped bundle in her arms.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: An Apple a Day

Have you ever heard the expression "an apple a day keeps the Doctor away?" Most assume, with no reason to think otherwise, that it is simply an easy-to-remember rhyme that stresses the importance of eating healthily to young children. But the saying did not originate as a harmless reminder. It was born in a frontier town in the early years of the gold rush, where food was scarce and money even scarcer.

One August, when a bad drought had struck the region, a series of bloody killings swept through the town. Every night, a single house would be broken into, and anyone who saw the invader would be swiftly, brutally slain. Nothing was ever stolen, save for a few scraps of food.

After two weeks of this, the local grocer set out a few apples and a glass of milk in the town square overnight. He then hid in the tower of the church, hoping to catch a glimpse of anyone who came by.

Fighting fatigue, the grocer waited for any sign of life below. Just after midnight, he was rewarded by a chilling sight; a man, carrying a black bag stuffed with dully shining metal tools and covered from head to foot in cloth bandages, staggered into view. He paused at the sight of the apples and milk, then whipped his head around, as if looking for the one who dared to patronize him. Seized with fear, the grocer ducked out of sight, staying hidden 'til sunrise.

The strange man had only taken one of the apples, and didn't even touch the glass of milk. No houses were broken into, and no one was killed. For decades, the town continued to place out an apple or two every night, even long after a single apple stopped disappearing.

-Namtlieu

Weekend Creepypasta: A Recipe for Success

Prominently displayed in the children's section of the Houston Downtown Public Library, among several others of the same title, My First Cookbook appears as a run-of-the-mill children's cookbook. It is complete with large print, simple instructions, colorful, friendly illustrations and a somewhat disproportionate desert section. In fact, the only major deviation from this theme is an article near the end of the book entitled, "A Recipe for Success". This is a complex, macabre ritual involving human sacrifice, self mutilation and sacrilege, as well as more curious and innocuous practices such as walking down a stair case with a prime number of stairs, taking them two at a time, and then up it taking them three at a time. It's written in the same cheerfully simple prose as the rest of the book and accompanied by the same helpful, pastel drawings.

-Namtlieu

MORE CREEPYPASTA: THE RED BARON

An odd occurrence has been rumored to happen in a certain pub at night in southwest Germany. Sit in the stool farthest from the door while one beside it is empty, order a round for yourself, and offer to "buy one for the Baron.” The bartender will, without question or expression, pour two beers from tap. He'll place one beside you, and the moment the other one hits the table the room will go dark and silent, save for the sound of footsteps. Look up, and you’ll see a man in uniform sit beside you.

It is believed that it is indeed Captain Manfred von Richthofen, although no one is sure because they can barely see their own glass, much less the person's face. No one who's told this story has had the nerve you touch him or risk insult, and the figure does not say a word. But apparently if you were to ask, "So sir, what's the condition at the front?" he would tell you startling details about the region's future and sometimes how they connect to the world as a whole.

Those who lived long enough after the fact claim that these events took place about the exact number of years from the date they asked as from the date Baron von Richthofen died in battle. Yet, this cannot be confirmed, because every time the figure has been asked the question after 1964, he's only replied with a cold laugh.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The Hotel California

They say that somewhere in western America, some say in Utah, others say on the California coast, there's a small motel on the side of the road. When you go inside, it's decorated in very common hotel attire, with the paneling and old fashioned key-lock doors.

The thing is, there's a room in there for everybody. Everybody has a reservation for exactly when they show up, and the number of rooms available is always one more than the number of people there. One person to a room is the rule.

Some say that the song "Hotel California" is based off this motel, though you *can* leave this particular motel. I wouldn't advise looking at a mirror for at least a month after doing so, though.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The "Real" Livejournal

When using Internet Explorer 3 for Windows (google around for a version that works on Windows XP), enter this in the address bar (you must input it with your keyboard):

for-you://gratitude-and-remembrance

Wait ~ 40 seconds. You will fell strange. Don't fight the feeling, or you will be jerked out of it, and you have only one chance to do it. A web log will appear. It will contain events that will happen for the seven next years of your life. Add /admin/ to the address bar. Try to guess the password your future self would have chosen. There is always a way, discovering it is never out of your reach even if it's a meaningless string of letters.

Once you have access to the admin, you can delete any post you want, and that event will never happen to you. However, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES you are to edit a post. Just don’t. You have only one hour to do it: after that the connection will be lost.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: Placebo and the Shadow People

If you listen to every song Placebo ever sang in the right order backwards (up to their most recent album), you will receive secret instructions on how to summon and control Shadow People. The order has to be exact, or else the Shadow People will come and kill you, turning you into one as well.

So far, nobody has ever gotten it right…

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The Tree of Memory

During the spring of 1902 in the Dry Tortugas islands off of the coast of Key West, a man was shot and the bullet protruded slightly from the back of his skull into a tree (which he had his back against). As time passed and the tree continued to grow, his putrefied corpse was lifted into the boughs as his skull was still attached loosely to the tree by the bullet. Eventually, the tree grew around the skeleton. If you can find this tree on one of the islands and tap it thrice with the heel of a leather boot, you will be granted the ability to make anyone forget anything at will.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The Theater

Okay, back to regular eerie tales today. I like the unexpected location of this one, although I think the consequences leave something to be desired. They’re so minor in comparison to others that I would almost be tempted to try this one. Enjoy!

There's a movie theater in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. It only plays movies from 1987. If you pay for 3 tickets and buy a large popcorn, they will play a film that shows you your future. If you watch the entire film completely, you will have sleeping problems for the rest of your life.

-Namtlieu

Creepypasta: Lovecraft's Perspective on the Universe

Today, something a little different: one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most thought-provoking quotations that will still send shivers up the spine of any thinking person. Just meditate on the full implications of this sort of “Lovecraftian Humanism.”

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: Unbinding the Mirror Self

The images we see in the mirror are the pure incarnations of evil. They are only allowed to exist in the area reflected in the glass. To them, life is like a never ending hell, rotting away in the same room day after day. The only release from this purgatory is death, and the only way for them to die, sad to say, is if YOU die.

Fortunately, they are bound by a code. You are their master, and they must mirror your every movement and expression. To do otherwise would break an unbreakable law, unraveling the space-time continuum. However, there is a loophole, and it can only be triggered by you, the master. To force them into error is to free them from their contract; after you let them out of your view, you're on your own. Know this: when you watch them, they're watching you back. They're watching. And they're thinking.

The next time you're alone in your room, turn down the lights. Think of something on your body that varies in length, such as hair. It must be clearly viewable from your perspective. Grab a ruler and, looking in the mirror, quickly grab a hair at random; you must confuse it. Hold it in position as best you can and note the length. Look down. Yours will be different.

Don't look back up.

Don't turn your back to that mirror ever again.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The Pin Prayers

Not quite as intentionally creepy as the others, but it does raise some interesting issues:

Convicted forger A. Schiller was serving his time in Sing Sing prison in the late 19^th century when guards found him dead in his cell. On his body, they found seven regular straight pins whose heads measured the typical 47/1000ths of an inch or 1.17 mm in diameter. Under 500X magnification, it was found that the tiny etchings were seen on the heads of the pins were the words to “The Lord’s Prayer,” which is 65 words and 254 letters long. Of the seven pins, six were silver and one was gold. The gold pin’s prayer was flawless and said to be a true masterpiece. Schiller had spent the last twenty five years of his life creating the pins, using a tool too small to be seen by the naked eye. It is estimated that it took 1,863 separate carving strokes to make it. Schiller went blind because of his artwork. Why did Schiller do this? And how did he acquire the knowledge to construct such a tiny instrument for the engravings?

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The Leap Year Bargain

There is a moment each leap year, at exactly three minutes past three on the morning of February twenty-ninth. If you possess the courage, await that moment in darkened room, with no other present. At that moment, the darkness will deepen. If you were to hold your hand directly before your face, you would not see a thing. But you must not do so. No, for that would be to waste the moment. Instead you must reach out, into that impenetrable darkness.

And it will reach out to you.

An unseen hand will grasp yours. You must not flinch away, nor tighten your grasp. To do so will only slough away more of the decrepit flesh that covers it, and anger its unseen owner. Remain perfectly still, as the withered fingers move over your palm, tracing unknown patterns. Do not move an inch as it crawls slowly up your arm. And most of all, do not even breathe as it caresses your face, touching what cannot be seen.

Should you remain still through this, the hand will be withdrawn and a voice will speak, so close you can feel its breath on your face, smelling the scent of decay it carries. It will ask you for one simple piece of information: your name. Answer truthfully, and the presence will retreat, leaving only a whisper in the air as the darkness lifts. "It is done."

From that day on, untold good fortune will be yours, alongside mysterious power. You will lack nothing, and have everything. But in a year, perhaps two, you will feel your skin begin to decay, and smell the sweet smell of death upon your breath...

-Namtlieu

Friday Creepypasta: The Lost Bride

A young man and his new bride were honeymooning in Paris when his wife went into a restroom and didn't return. With time the man began to fear the worst and went to the police. The police thought it was most likely the girl simply had second thoughts about the marriage, but they checked it out anyway and found no evidence of foul play.

As weeks turned into months, the man finally gave up on finding his beautiful wife, but his life fell into a shambles he was so filled with grief.

Unable to hold a job or go on with his life, he took to wandering the world looking for anything that might ease his pain. Years later in Borneo, he came upon a freak show in an old shabby building and went in on a whim. In the last filthy cage he saw a twisted, scarred, and mutilated woman rocking back and forth and groaning strange animal-like noises. He screamed as he recognized the birthmark on his wife's face.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The German Medic

In winter of 1944, with overtaxed supply lines in the Ardennes, a German medic had completely run out of plasma, bandages, and antiseptic. During one particularly bad round of mortar fire, his encampment suddenly became a bloodbath. The survivors claimed to hear, above the screams and barked commands of their Lieutenant, someone cackling with almost girlish glee.

The medic made his rounds during the fire, in almost complete darkness as he had so many times before, but never this short on supplies.

The bombardment moved to other ends of the line, most men dropped off to sleep in the still dark hours of the morning - New Year's Day, 1945.

The men awoke at first light with screams. They discovered that their bandages were not typical bandages at all, but hunks and strips of human flesh. Several men had been given fresh blood transfusions, with no blood supplies available. Each treated man was almost completely covered, head-to-toe, with the maroon stain of blood.

The medic was found, sitting on an ammunition tin, staring off into space. When one man approached him, tapped him on the shoulder, his tunic fell off to reveal all skin, muscle, and sinew had been stripped from his torso and his body almost completely dried of blood. In one hand was a scalpel, and in the other, a blood transfusion vial.

None of the men treated for wounds that night, in that camp, saw the end of January, 1945.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The Secret Society

A secret society meets once every three years at a small diner in West Virginia.

To join, you must come to the American Grill diner located in Cricket at 9:30 PM on September 21st. The only uniform is a heavy overcoat and a green tie.

Order an "Eggs and Bacon platter with coffee." The waiter will tell you that the breakfast menu is unavailable. Reply, "Well, just the coffee then." You'll be allowed to stay after closing time for the meeting.

The meeting itself is a gathering of minds and philosophy regarding immortality. The society is called "The Socratic Method." They hoist their mugs at the beginning and end of the meeting and say "Death to Socrates." It's rumored a little hemlock is added to the first cup, and an antidote to the last.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The State of the Union

If you watch every State of the Union Address since it's been filmed and available on tape, you'll see that halfway through--exactly halfway through--the President always says the same word. Most say it under their breath during the standing ovations, but some are forced to work it into the speech itself.

What's the word? You don't want to know.

-Namtlieu

More Creepypasta: The Dark Bargain

There exists a small circle of trees somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, completely unremarkable from the outside, but inside no sun or star ever shines. Rumor has it that anyone that can spend three pitch black days and nights within the grove without going mad will be greeted with the queer sight of the sun rising in the west on the beginning of the fourth day, filling the grove with radiant light. One wish may be made before this sun, and it shall be fulfilled. However, once that person makes the wish, the world outside the grove shall forever be as dark for them as it had been inside for those three days.

-Namtlieu

Additional Weekend Morning Serving of Creepypasta: Hell Vision

For a brief period in 1971, a New Jersey based company sold novelty “x-ray” glasses through the mail via advertisements in the Marvel line of comic books. People who viewed their televisions while wearing these glasses reported seeing images that were "hellish.” It should be noted that this phenomena occurred whether the televisions in question were turned on or off. The company quickly went out of business and investigations revealed that the company's address leads to a graveyard founded many decades before 1971.

-Namtlieu