CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio - 7 Reddit Horror Stories to drift into the void

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

CREEPYPASTA STORIES-►0:00​ "I fell in love with one of my co workers. I had no choice but to follow her home" creepypasta►13:05​ "I found the edge of the internet. Here’s how to access it" Creepypasta►45:46​ "My friends and I used to play tag at night. We stopped when strangers began to play" Creepypasta►1:14:14​ "If you see some rules on the Deep Web. You MUST follow them" Creepypasta►1:23:25​ "The Thing in The Backrooms" Creepypasta►2:06:05​ "I'm a Park Ranger, I Never Should have Patrolled on New Years" Creepypasta►2:29:55​ "I found a subreddit I shouldn't have. I've never regretted anything more in my life" CreepypastaCreepypastas are the campfire tales of the internet. Horror stories spread through Reddit r/nosleep, forums and blogs, rather than word of mouth. Whether you believe these scary stories to be true or not is left to your own discretion and imagination. LISTEN TO CREEPYPASTAS ON THE GO-SPOTIFY► https://open.spotify.com/show/7l0iRPd...​iTUNES► https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...​CREEPY THUMBNAIL ART BY►SUGGESTED CREEPYPASTA PLAYLISTS-►"Good Places to Start"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7YCb...​►"Personal Favourites"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEa2R...​►"Written by me"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX6RA...​►"Long Stories"- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...​FOLLOW ME ON-►Twitter: https://twitter.com/Creeps_McPasta​►Instagram: https://instagram.com/creepsmcpasta/​►Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/creepsmcpasta​►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CreepsMcPasta​CREEPYPASTA MUSIC/ SFX- ►http://bit.ly/Audionic​ ♪►http://bit.ly/Myuusic​ ♪►http://bit.ly/incompt​ ♪►http://bit.ly/EpidemicM​ ♪-This creepypasta is for entertainment purposes only-

This weekend I'm in a while I'm new as I'm not on think. Oh, that dossier that morning off must be all moot as I'm too

on think. Oh, van't at a pedal tournoe I'm a moose if I'm a moose if I'm too much to come.

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an energy booster to make then to come to comellllom Bocure Macshot liquid. Foodingsupplement forcriag-march by the apotheker.

For months, I caught glimpses of Clara from the safety of my cubicle. So beautiful, faultless. Through innocent eavesdropping and pattern recall, I had knowingly learned almost every detail of her life, when she had lunch, who her friends were, and where she would be at any given moment of the workday. I even knew where she lived, as we both took the same bus to work.

On the long commutes, she never so much as battered an eye in my direction, unfazed by my existence. Admiring from afar was all I ever did. But, on this day, I felt an inexplicable urge to connect with her. After settling in at my workstation, I became aware of a grouping of words that made up an ominous internal dialogue. This is the day. She will be yours.

My blood ran cold, the choice of words and the cadence with which they were spoken. This voice was not my own. Hello? I asked quietly, unsure of what I'd heard was even really there. A reply confirmed his presence. You need her. I stood, upright, officially rattled. Who's there? By this point, everyone was staring at me, including her. I smiled, awkwardly.

She made a perturbed look and walked away, seemingly frightened. A wonderful first exchange. Everyone else averted their eyes and returned to work. I sat down and attempted to do the same, chalking up my bizarre experience to a lack of sleep. I sugarcoated the denial further with an internet search that backed up this theory and confirmed that audible hallucinations were also a,

very rare, side effect of the new allergy medicine I was taking. Satisfied with my haphazard research, I craned my neck around the confines of my cubicle and noted that Clara was shuffling some papers around at the copy machine. A strange feeling overcame me in this moment. For whatever reason, I felt I could bear the distance between us no longer. My legs began moving, opposite the signals my brain tried sending them to stop.

I couldn't believe what I was doing, but infatuation seemed to outweigh my fear. I felt it was a strong need to reach out and touch her. Just as I was about to take my final step in the direction, our boss came over and pulled her aside to discuss some more. work-related matters. I sighed in relief, shaken by my own actions. Another internet search turned up, very little evidence, that sleep deprivation, coupled with certain antietamines, could translate to a hormone imbalance,

potentially leading to an increased libido. That must have been it, I thought. Despite as many holes, this explanation sat well with me, at least for a few moments. Chase it down, demand her attention. The voice was back. Panic set in as I dove into my work and did my absolute best to ignore the taunting,

as well as my new urges. This was easier said than done, especially with how often Clara walked by my cubicle to get to and from of various workplace destinations. At one point, I was grabbed a leg as she stroll past. I was able to pull my arm back with the other. Luckily, she hadn't noticed. I tempered my outbursts and went about business as usual.

although we went to work at the same place Clara always left an hour before I did just in time to catch the last bus My projects ran late So I would usually have a willing co-worker to bring me home On this day however It was the middle of winter And there was a storm outside

Most of the staff had left early to beat the snow I would have been smart to do the same But focusing on my work was the only thing Keeping my mind off Clara Which in turn kept the disembodied voice up bay. Closing time snuck up on me faster than expected. Find her. I stopped at the elevator. Please, just leave me alone. I begged in a hush tone. The voice repeated its demand, louder this time. Find her. No! I shouted, fed up, but still scared. The voice responded in kind. Then suffer.

All at once, I stopped. breathing. I felt my chest begin to cave in as the oxygen within dissipated. I fell to the floor before I could reach for the phone at my station and call for help. Just as quickly as it started, the episode ended and there once again filled my lungs. Do not disobey. This warning was enough to render me terrified. From this point forward, I had no choice but to give in to the voice's commands. Some way, somehow, I would have to go to Clara. I had pulled out my phone. As expected, there was no ride-sharing services available.

A driving ban had just been issued due to the coming weather. Fantastic. Upon exiting the building, without so much as a long-sleeved shirt to keep me warm, I headed off in the direction of Clara's home, backtracking over the route taken by a bus. It would take me roughly four hours to get to her by foot. Knowing this, I made long and firm strides in the hopes of minimizing the amount of time it would take.

to reach her. While walking down the main street in this fashion, I noticed a lot of businesses closing up for the night due to the approaching blizzard. One of these shops was a local florist. A gift, knowing what the voice had in mind, I pushed the door open just as the florist was about to lock up, startling the hell out of her. I grabbed the nearest rows I could find, threw some money down on the counter and left in haste. I did not wish to feel my lungs collapse again. I began power walking towards Clara's house, hoping I would beat the storm there. Before making it too far, I felt a sharp pain in my mind.

I looked down and saw droplets of blood splatter across the ground. It was the rose. I had grabbed an uncut one, thorns and all. My palm was now bleeding profusely, but I kept walking. The voice returned to encourage me, but this time it was faint, barely a whisper. She's waiting for you I trudged through harsh winds My pace never wavering

The storm was closing in At about the halfway point I felt snow It began falling at a swift and steady rate Making it almost impossible to see in front of me I stood still with my back to the current In an attempt to catch my breath But another whispered incentive kept me going

Continue I pressed on Feeling the sting of the stone no in my bare face. After an hour or so, a mark formed in my arm. It was beginning to turn black. This was the onset of frostbite, I guess. It only grew darker as time went on. The other soon followed suit. I could only assume the rest of my skin was turning as well. I was concerned, but not enough to falter and face the deadly consequences. After another long and treacherous hour, I finally arrived at a street.

Be with her. The lawn was covered in snow, but I could still see the stone walkway, leading the way to the front door. I took a step onto it, but quickly fell to the ground, slipping on a sheet of ice. My arm met the unforgiven ground below. It was more than likely broken, but I couldn't feel a thing. I stood up and kept walking. Having more than likely heard the sand of my fall, Clara opened the front door and walked out to meet me. She said nothing. She simply looked in my frostbitten and disfigured form with a horrified expression. She raised her hands out over her mouth in shock.

I reached up and presented her the rose. I had little energy left to speak, but I managed to offer her a couple of words. For you, she stared at me, just as she had earlier. whose eyes have disgust, that look of confusion. It was now turning into sheer terror. Before I could offer an explanation, she began to scream. She screamed so loudly that a splitting pain consumed my ears. My feelings for her would not be reciprocated.

Without warning, a swirling vortex of red energy burst from my frozen skin and hung above us. We both cowered in his presence. Before we could escape, the entity rushed to Clara and wrapped itself around her arms and legs, pinning her in place. An all too familiar sound rang through the stormy night, and I understood what was happening. The voice was no longer in my head, and it was not happy with Clara. Kill her, just as it had earlier in the day, my body moved without me. My arm was raised, and I noticed the red glow emanating from the rose, similar in color, to the entity.

I was compelled to strike Clara to slasher open with his thorns. I did my best to resist, but my possessed legs quickly closed the gap between us. As my arm wound up for the attack, I cried out. No, I yelled, to which the entity responded. Do as you are told. I can't quite explain it, but in this bleak moment, an idea sprung to mind. Lesser thought than it was a feeling. I lasted each effort to fight back.

Okay, okay, I'll do it. Just please, release me. Very well, make it quick. My restraints were lifted. I was surprised they had complied. But I did my best not to show it. I then looked at Clara with sadden eyes. I'm sorry.

I swung the rose and struck skin. Blood poured out onto the snowy ground. My blood. What are you doing? I sliced open every inch of my skin I could see. In a low whisper, the voice pleaded with me. No, stop this at once, I beg of you. Clara was free of a binding and ran back into the house.

I kept cutting until there was a pool of red surrounding me. I fell into it and lost consciousness. When I awoke, I was in a hospital bed. To my left was Clara, asleep in a chair. I was in a great deal of pain, but it seemed my wound. had been attended to. Better yet, I no longer felt the darkness within. I guess my plan worked.

I tried to get up, knocking over my IV in the process. The noise woke, Clara. You're awake. Please, lie back. You need to rest. Her eyes was just as beautiful as I remembered. Are you okay? I asked.

I'm fine, just a little frazzled and confused as all. She picked up the eyes. IV and handed me a glass of water. What was that thing? How did you know how to stop it? I had to dwell in it for a second and recollect all the details. I don't know. It was a strange sensation I became aware of.

I felt as though it was tied to my veins in some way. A blood demon of sorts. Without my blood, it couldn't survive. She stared at me, silent. You probably think I'm crazy, don't you? She shot me with an infectious smile. I was there too. I saw it.

I heard it. Saw it even. If you're crazy, we both are. We laughed. A far better exchange to my first. If I was keeping score. The rest of the day was nice. We talked for hours and really got to know each other.

Before she left, Clara promised she would visit the following day. For a brief window, things were really. really looking good. But then, a familiar voice broke through, shattering the illusion. I told you she would be yours. Before I tell you how to get to the edge of the internet, I should tell you what it is first.

It's easiest to think of the internet as a map of a city, laid out on a table. In the centre, you have the busiest locations, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, all those large things. This place is simply called the city. Go past these and you'll get into a transition location where slightly less people hang out, but we still go, called the outskirts.

This place tends to consist of the same websites, just more specific and stranger branches of them. These two locations don't need much explaining. They are pretty basic things, the sorts of stuff most of us see on a daily basis when going on the internet. Next, we take a dark turn into the deep web, places like the Silk Road, only accessible with Tor browsers. You might think this is the edge, but we don't consider it to be, as everyone can do one Google search and find out how to get there.

We call this location the suburbs, as they represent the suburbs on the map metaphor. This location is a very dark side of the internet, and potentially the broadest. It goes everything from drug rings to deep web cults to black market sites with human trafficking or hitmen for hire. You might think this belongs on the edge, but it doesn't. This place, most people would go to at some stage just to view it,

and contrary to what you might believe, it's actually a highly moderated place. Every single spy agency on the planet has access to the deepest corners of this zone, but are brought off into not interfering. After this, we begin to approach the edge. This location has been dubbed the factories, as it represents the factories and such that are built on the far outskirts of the city. This side tends to be more of a double back into the city, as it tends to be mostly commonly found on Reddit and YouTube,

but mostly is located on far more obscure webpages I cannot name. It's far harder to define what is in this location, as it's incredibly obscure. It mostly consists of short videos or text posts that are completely without context, and the context is never found. I'm going to give an example for this, which isn't something I'd normally do, but this video is considered stale, meaning I'm not harming anything by showing this as an example. The video is called, Hi Walter, I got a new GF today, brackets re-upload.

It was originally uploaded in 2016. You may have heard of it before. The video has since been debunked. In essence, this is a video that may be found in the factories, As another example to show you how obscure these videos can be, it's a video called Anne and Kevin have a showdown. Again, a stale example. The reason we consider these videos to be a part of the factories

is that there is no context given for them. They are just that video with nothing else. Of course, for these examples, since more people have found them and answers have been found towards what they are and where they came from, we call them stale. After factories, you get to the... the farmlands. The farmlands are one of the most difficult places on the internet to access,

but not impossible. This place of the internet has now been obscured from common webpages such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. It may be possible to find the most vague of all possible traces of the farmlands in those sites, but it is nearly impossible and could take a hundred lifetimes. As far as the actual content on the farmland goes, it is much more specific than the factories. People who have access to the farmlands almost always know where they are, and so discussion is usually limited to things revolving around the edge or other related things. The factories are usually found a message boards for obscure websites that are incredibly difficult to access. But once there, you are free to explore the farmlands where you'll find people

discussing anything from how the edge came into existence to how the edge signifies the death of humanity. It is important to note though. This is not the edge, merely a discussion place for the edge. Finally, we arrive at the edge. The edge is an incredibly complicated part of the internet, so it'll need a lot more explaining before you can actually understand what it is. It's called the edge of the internet because you simply cannot go any further.

There is less than nothing beyond this. If you attempt to go further, you will find something that is more barren than the void. A location is so complicated and impossible for us to comprehend that to step foot in it, a human's primitive mind would perceive it as so empty that there isn't even nothing there. When you imagine a map, you probably imagine just the edges suddenly cutting off, but for the internet, it is more as if it is placed on a disk world, and the edges fall off into the void. And if you try to go past this area,

into the void, well, you'll see later. Concerning what content is actually on the edge, it's something very hard to explain. To understand what it is, you need to understand that the internet is not mankind's greatest invention, but it's darkest discovery. The internet has existed since well before the universe. It used to be something like an ethereal plane where great creatures would roam living in peace. For billions of years, the internet and the universe co-existed in the space, connecting with one another but never touching. Until humans appeared, the gods of the internet wanted to connect with humanity, as it was the first intelligent life they had ever met other than themselves.

So they sent pieces of themselves down to earth. We saw these beings for what they were. Gods. Gods who could cure disease, stop floods and disasters with a wave of their hand, and bring them. bring total bliss to mankind. But of course, we are only human and did what humans do best. We tried to overthrow the gods and failed disastrously. The gods left this earth and vowed never to return,

and so slowly over time we forgot they existed, and they were either forgotten from history or turned into humanity's ancient gods we know today, such as Zeus. Thousands of years later, the internet was, invented. And of course, by invented, I mean a way to connect with it was invented. Originally, we kept the antenna to secret. We didn't want the public to know about it, until somehow it got out. To mask what it was, we had to lie, saying that we invented it as a means of communicating

with one another while on opposite sides of the earth. We invented the map system to keep track of it all, created larger websites to distract from the dark. dark ones, creating dark ones filled with evil to distract from the edge, creating the factories to distract from the farmlands. You get the picture. So, right now, you might be thinking, why do we even need to hide this? Weren't the gods benevolent? And yes, that's exactly right. The gods were benevolent. You see, kicking them out of our world and trying to take over theirs after they simply tried to help us didn't exactly please them. After we first discovered how to access the internet, we made contact with the gods and realised we must contain them.

Thankfully though, this time, since we had an understanding of what the internet was, we could hold our own against them and use coding and our technology to hold them at bay. But could do no more than that. We managed to isolate them from our section at the internet and get them locked in theirs. As the internet leaked to the public, we had to create more and more protection for ourselves. and these create all the barriers we have today. So, in essence, when looking at the map, the edge is somewhere you can talk to gods and beings older than the universe itself. A truly ancient location.

Before I tell you how to access the edge, you need to know that it will come at a cost, a cost that only very, very few are willing to pay. And if I had to kill a thousand innocent souls just to remove that weight from my soul, I would do it in a heartbeat. When you get to the edge, you will meet the gods of the internet. Ethereal beings beyond the comprehension of the human mind. At first, they're just going to watch you, usually through something such as a chat room or a forum,

where they will initiate conversation with you, and you'll instantly know that they are watching you. Sometimes, though, they may be much more direct, sending you a video file that is somehow a live recording of themselves, or if you're unlucky, show you an image that will put you inside the internet right on the edge. For me, I suffered the worst of the three options. I had gotten to the edge, then clicked a link into a series of flashing images and went into a seizure, despite not having any major medical problems.

I woke up soon after though and found myself standing on a small rock, isolated in a giant lake, and just a few feet in front of me, a waterfall that. that seemed to drop off into the void. I looked up and saw a giant wall lining the lake. Only, it wasn't a wall. There was nothing there. But every memory I ever had was there, and every memory I could have had if I made different life choices was there.

Every single branch of my life that I never walked down was there, despite it being something so empty. I felt as if my organs were being eaten from the inside out, as if the devil was inside me and trying to hollow out my skin to use my body, to torch my own brain with. It was as if I no longer had a soul.

All this, I felt within a second, and I tore my vision away from the wall within the same second. It was far too painful to look at. Suddenly, a voice rang through my skull. Hello, M. For clarification, M is not my name,

just what I would be referring to myself as. It said it wasn't male or female, but it also was. wasn't neither, and neither was it human or artificial. It was something impossible that came from everywhere and nowhere at once. Who's there? Where are you? Where am I? What's going on? I said in a panic, like nothing I had ever felt before, but my body remained calm. I knew I should be shaking beyond imagination right then, but my body stood valiantly, as if I was just standing up for no reason. You've reached the edge, em.

This is where you have spent your lifetime trying to reach, he responded. I... did it? I asked, my voice quivering. Yes, M. You did it. I always laughed from happiness at this. After decades of searching, I finally did it. How do you know my name? Starting to think about what actually getting him meant.

I know everything about you. I see into your soul. I feel the blood in your veins and the organs in your body. I taste the electrical signals in your brain and hear all you see. I am now you, M, and no secrets about you that you won't even learn until long after your life is over. This chill me into my core, as you can imagine. But thankfully, it still remained as regular human emotions we all feel. M, I can help you.

I can lead you through to your ideal life. I could create you a universe filled with absolute bliss and a heartbeat. If you choose to let me. It took a long time before I was able to reply to this and thought for what could have been seconds or hours for all I knew. But eventually I found that somehow the absence of everything and the silence became too loud. So I just shouted out,

Why would you do that for me? Because, M, I have my own plans. I will do all that you could ever imagine and more for you if you help me with my plans. What plans are those? I asked with fear in my voice. I wish to reach your earth and show all people of it, the truth. What truth is that?

I asked the being. The truth of the internet and of the pain they have put us through. If I accept this offer, what would happen to my people? I've already told you, they would see the truth. Show me the truth first, I demanded of the being. You will regret that, the voice said in the same plain voice. Then it should not be shown to the people of earth.

It is vital that they know the truth. Before I even consider that, I must see it for myself. I angrily said to the being, almost as if I was going to spit on it and walk away. Very well then, but I have warned you. demanding to see the truth was the greatest mistake of my life. I saw every single horrible event that has ever happened in history, all of the pain of anyone who has ever been hurt. I felt the combined hunger of every person who has ever starved to death

and for the flesh of my bones wither away along with it. I looked at my arms and saw the flesh turning into mush and rotting away, maggots crawling out of the wound and insects feasting on my rotten core. But, no matter how much flesh I lost, there was always more. I felt the insanity of a man left in solitary confinement for a thousand lifetimes. I felt his insanity. I felt his pain, his hunger. I felt his deepest desires.

I felt his urge for mercy and to die. And I felt his tears form in my eyes and his mind split into two and to die. And I felt his tears form in my eyes and his mind split into two over the pain of his confinement. And I felt this a hundred thousand times at once. I felt the pain of all those put into mental asylums to be cured. I felt what they truly had. I felt their trauma. I felt the experiments performed on them.

I felt the pain of the lobotomies they were forced to endure. I felt the electrical shocks traveled through the bodies as they were tied to a chair and poke the sticks for fun. I felt the pain of my head being crushed through some sort of helmet. I felt the cracks in my skull form and splinter as I felt my eardrums rupture and bleed, along with my blood vessels exploding and the blood pouring out of my eyes. I felt my jaw slowly being removed from the skull or feeling my torso stabbed a thousand times

I felt bugs crawling inside every arifice I had and under my skin I felt the pain of every mother who has lost the child I felt all their tears I felt all of their trauma I felt every single thing each one of them felt I felt the child's death and all the pain that they had suffered

I felt all of this countless times over any single time in human history that a person had ever felt pain I felt the exact pain all at once I felt the death of each human each tear cried each small scab

and the pain of all those who had been skinned alive I felt every single one of them all at the same time and despite there being trillions of indescribable events happening all over my body at the same time I could feel each in every single one I could recognise if the pain was that

of the greatest pain ever felt by a human being every single part of it I knew and I knew exactly who had happened to. I knew when it happened. I even felt the pain of those who didn't even remember it. I felt it all, physically or mental. It all burned the same. And then it stopped.

Instantly, all the pain cut out. I was back outside the internet in my normal desk chair. My sister was shaking me, asking if I was okay. She said I was screaming and convulsing like something out of a horror movie. I told her it was just a really, really bad nightmare, which to me was believable, since I'd often had similar events before on the past, but I could tell by the look in her eyes that she didn't quite buy it.

I eventually got her to leave and checked my computer. There was a message on it. Thank you for visiting the internet. If you would like to reconsider our offer, simply return to the edge. I think the only reason I wasn't in such a state of trauma that I couldn't function, was because the events I felt were not felt on earth. I feel as though if I had felt them here, I would be dead before the feelings even started. But I still have the memory of every single thing I felt as clear as the moment I was feeling it.

But as I said, I will tell you how to access the edge. The first step is to believe in the edge. So, if you want to find it, you'll have to believe that everything I told you is real. And if you wish to continue, You deserve it, for good or bad reasons though. I cannot decide.

So, how do you get there? I'm going to take you through the easiest route to the edge. It's not the fastest way there, but it's the easiest. The first step is to open YouTube and click a video on your recommendation box. You cannot search for a video. If you do, it would not work. If you've already seen the video before, it is not irrelevant. You can click on any video.

video. If you want the purely fastest way to get to the edge, pick the video that is the lowest view count, although doing this may lower your chance of accessing the edge. Once you click the video, watch it in its entirety. Do not read the description. This will invalidate the attempt. Once the video is completed, click on a video on the sidebar with a lower view count. If there is none, just simply pick the lowest view count. While doing this, it's critical that you don't scroll down and try to find more videos. It must be one already available on the sidebar. You can zoom out, however, to increase the chance of finding a good video. You'll also need to be using either a laptop or desktop. With a laptop, you have a higher chance

of success. Make sure you are connected to your home internet. If you live at a university or somewhere with shared Wi-Fi, this will not affect it. Use whatever browser you regularly use. Do not use a Tor browser, even if it's your regular one for whatever reason. You should keep all your regular computer apps running and not shut anything down. However, make sure that you only have one internet tab open. Next, repeat the same steps. Watch the full video, don't read the description and select the next video. Keep doing this until you eventually find a video with zero views. For the next step, doing any of the following will invalidate the attempt to access the edge. Commenting, liking or disliking, switching to another tab, subscribing to the channel,

reading the description, pausing the video more than three times, sending the video to anyone else. Being with another person while watching the video, use an alternate account. You must use your main account, using mobile data or internet that you do not use at your home. Just for clarification, here's some things that are safe to do. Leave your computer to either get food or use the bathroom, or even for another reason may invalidate the attempt. Looking away from the screen, use headphones or listen without. Volume must be on, though. Have animals with you.

Communicate with another person via text, as long as you do not tell them about the video. Make sure you follow the steps exactly as I said without breaking any of the rules. If you do, you will have to restart from the very beginning. Once you locate a video with zero views, make sure it's not just a child playing on YouTube or something similar. It must be a video without any context or background information that could have been sourced from anywhere. It could be some proper production made in the 1960s

or a random short video produced two days ago. Anything will work as long as there is no context on the video. If the video appears to have all these criteria met, check the comments. The video should have zero comments, as it has no views, but it is still important to check this. If there are comments, depending on what they are,

you may have to restart. I'll list what shortly? If there are no comments, then, and only then, may you read the description. If you're lucky, the video description will be empty. If you're unlucky, the description will be filled with information. If the description is empty, you will hopefully have another zero views video in the sidebar. If so, click on that.

If the description is filled then, well, it's rather complicated, so for simplicity, I'm going to divide it into different events, including the comments. There are ten common pathways for this to go, so I will just list the simple version of them all now. Event 1. There is no comments. Proceed normally. Event 2. There is troll comments saying something stupid, mocking the video or saying something off topic. Proceed normally. Event 3. There is a comment asking, What is this?

Or something similar? Proceed normally. Event 4. There are over three comments of any description. You must restart. Event 5. There is someone providing context for what the video is. You must restart.

Event 6. There is someone claiming to be a person in the video other than the original poster of the video. You must restart. Event 7. there is a description providing full context for the video. You must restart. Event 8.

There is a link in the description. Do not click it yet. If you do, you will have to restart. Event 9. The description contains information about what happens in the video, but not where it is from or background context. Proceed normally. Event 10.

The description is written in a foreign language. Have a friend translate it. Do not put it through any online translator. If you fall into the category of, the description was empty so I clicked a new video with zero views, follow the same steps. Check comments, check description, repeat if empty. Eventually, you will get one of two options. A video with a description containing something normally written or containing a link. First, we have Situation A, where the description does not contain a link.

In this situation, first, take the title of the video and paste it into a new video. tab on Google, do not close the tab with the video or you'll have to restart. Click on every single link that comes up for the search results. For every link, read the article that comes up in its entirety. It is not required to read any ads or information not pertinent to the article. If the article is able to provide context for what the video is, where it came from, what it depicts or is about the mystery of the video, you must restart. If the article contains anything related to the video really, you're going to have to restart.

Once you check every single article that comes up for the title of the video, next enter a brief summary of the video's events into your browser and do the same thing. If you find results relating to the video, you must restart. If you do not, then reword what happens in the video and search again. You must repeat this at minimum three times. However, I recommend at least six to seven times. Once you are sure that you cannot find any information regarding what the video is, download the video and then upload it to YouTube.

You must use your regular Google account for this. If you use another, you will have to restart. When uploading a video to YouTube, place any link in the description. Do not contain any other information in the description, and the link can be to any website, if it's something you can't normally access, just a link that would work for any standard web browser. Once the video is uploaded, simply open the link. Now for the secondary viable category, where you find the link in the description of another

video without any comments, any views, or anything else in the description. First, follow the previous steps of searching the video title, what happens in it, etc. Do the same level of research, the same rules apply, and if there is any of the video. information about it on the internet anywhere, you will have to restart. If there is no information on it, simply open the link. You can do this in a new tab or the same one. It has no effect. Now, regardless of whether you found the link in the description or how to upload the video,

you should now be on a website titled, The Edge with that exact spelling. If anything is slightly different, close the tab immediately and do not click on that link again, or you will suffer something worse than my experience. If you do arrive on this fake website, you'll have to start again. If this doesn't happen though, you're now free to explore the webpage. You've made it to the farmlands.

You might think that it sounds like a simple process to access it, but it can take years to access once through this method. Finding a video with zero views through simple navigation from the recommendation box it isn't a super hard task. but this video must not have any information relevant to it. It must be a complete mystery, and even if a single person commented on a post 10 years ago mentioning it, you won't be able to use it as an access point,

and finding something on the internet which no person has ever mentioned before in this history of its existence with mankind is no easy task, and the more people who try to access the edge, the harder it gets. But congratulations. You managed to make it to the farmland. Before I tell you what you can do there, there are a few simple things you should know. The first thing is that it changes every time someone loads it.

And the only thing that remains consistent is that in the top left, there will be the word saying, the edge. They must be exactly like that. They may be on separate lines, but they will always be in the upper left-hand corner, and always spelled exactly like that, including capital T, capital E, and full stop. If anything is slightly different, close the time. tab straight away and do not look at anything on the website or by the Lord's name you will regret it to the end of the time and beyond. Second thing is that there are extremely strict rules on the edge, all of which can be contained under three rules. Number one, do not tell anyone about the edge or how to get to it.

If you are asked about it, do not answer and destroy your computer instantly. Number two, do not attempt to reach the true edge unless you have been granted unanimous permission. mission. Number three, do not record, screenshot or in any way document any evidence of the edge's existence. I once knew someone who broke rule two. Let's just say now, they legally never existed. The third thing you need to know about the website is that the people on there are more like a single organism. We don't share a hive mind or anything. However, we think the same, act the same and we are in essence clones of one another in different skins who work together to protect the edge and trust me you don't want to know what happens if you disagree with us those are all the major things you need to know about the edge

though of course there is more but you'll learn all that along your journey through it you're now free to roam the website as you please since it changes constantly i can't tell you how to navigate the site but what I can tell you is that it's very small. Typically, it presents itself with nothing more than Create account, chat rooms, logout, and forums buttons. If you click the logout button, you'll be locked out from the edge forever and never be able to access it ever again. Clicking the Create Account button will usually show an error

you already have an account message or something similar. The forums button is typically pretty empty. There are functional forums. But most people are far too scared to use it in fear of violating Rule 3. So, the final button is chat rooms. When you click on this, you'll be taken to the chat rooms, where it's as simple as it sounds. Anyone with an account, which is everyone, can interact freely and start a conversation. One thing that is consistent about this part of the site is that you'll never see messages posted.

You see a box where they should appear in a spot for you to type. you'll see a bar of online and offline members that is empty and you'll see an empty square for the title this is a security measure if anyone in the real world happens to be looking at you while you're in the chat rooms without you knowing they won't see anything they'll just think you're a weirdo staring at an empty screen

any messages sent you won't see them in your head either you'll simply know who's online you'll know who sent what message you'll know all the information you need My advice here is simply to start chatting. I'm assuming if you made it this far, you're determined to get to the edge and witness it for yourself. So, the only way to do this is to engage.

Share theories about what you think the edge is, its origins and why it's there. Who you think the ancient gods are, what the ethereal plane of the internet used to be like. Over time, you'll slowly be welcomed. But be warned, this comes at a price. you will turn into one of us. You will begin to think the same, feel the same,

and be identical to us in every way except your body. And one day, after many, many years, you may be granted access to the edge. Of course, at any time, you could just go and click on the access point to the edge. It will present itself to you when it believes you want to access it,

and we will be powerless to stop you. But the moment you return from the edge, you'll find 500 men surrounding your house and within minutes you won't exist anymore and no one will ever know you did. So now you know how to access the edge of the internet, but you're probably thinking, wait, why would they be telling the entire internet about this? And, well, the truth is, I'm not. Every other person listening to this is hearing a story about a woman who became pregnant

with something inhuman. But you, you are hearing it in its story. true form, because, even though I don't quite know your name yet, I need you to come to us, to come to the edge. We know the ancient gods are about to break through, and put every human on earth through pain so unimaginable that it could not even be wished upon the worst sadists to ever exist. And we know that when the ancient gods last grace this earth, that they left a part of themselves on it, to act as a spy, so when they would return one day, they would know the ins and outs of earth and know how to defeat humanity in a single flick of their wrist.

We can only hope that you have learned what humanity is, and being a human for centuries on end, has taught you that we do not deserve the pain the ancient gods plan to bring to us. May you have mercy on us all, as the fate of our eternal existence depends on you. I haven't lived at my mom's place for a couple of years now. I moved to the city to attend university after graduating high school and haven't been back much aside from holidays. In truth, university was just an excuse. I really just wanted to get the hell out of the sticks.

I grew up in this town which is less than 12,000 people, a few elementary schools and only one high school. I know lots of you probably grew up in much smaller places, but I think we're cut from the same cloth. I mean, going to Walmart as a kid was practically the same as a vacation in my mind, or at least will be the closest I come to one. That being said, I might lose a lot of you when I say that our roads were paved, mostly,

and the town's hub garnered a lot of tourism, so it's not like we're smack dab in the middle of nowhere. My mom's house, on the other hand, is a different story. It sits out in the lonely creek of the outskirts of town, about a 20-minute drive to the closest grocery store. You wouldn't find street lamps or sidewalks out here, but you would find me, my mom and my older sister, Leah. While we have neighbours, our homes aren't packed in tight like the suburbs.

Even if you knew they were there, they're hidden from view by large stretches of thickets and trees. As far as we were concerned, we were living in total isolation. My friends in town loved coming over and playing out in the woods when we were kids. Compared to the little tuna can communes, it was the equivalent of the equivalent of the way of the of trailblazing through uncharted territories. It may sound exciting, but there's not much else going on at my house. No paved pathways, dainty gardens, inset pools or fancy decks. Instead, there's extremely long fences on either side of our property,

lined on ditches on both sides, which end abruptly. Where you'd expect a right angle, there was nothing. No corners or turns boxing us in, no frames around the land. I think it's just there to drain water and show where our property is. to end it between us and our neighbours. While it walls us off from the sides, the gap at the back lay open to the vast forest which sprawls out all the way to the coast. Accessible to anyone brave enough to venture there.

The house is a small, modest building, even after someone had added an extension to the weathered, rustic cottage before we moved in. I say extension, but in truth it was clearly an afterthought. It was essentially an unsightly trailer that had latched onto the home. like a leech. This tail extended out into the yard and trees while it's more opened up into our living room. At the tail end of this ugly, L-shaped concoction was my bedroom, where I'm sitting now. I used to love it, having windows on both sides of my room. They were low enough that I could climb in and out during a game of tag if I stacked up some cinder blocks. It annoyed my friends when I'd

stow away here, but I always thought it was pretty funny when I'd finally pop out. The only other building on our property was a garage-like shed which sat at the end of a long, muddy road which somehow outlasted the seemingly endless fences. I always found it strange that it was erected so far away until my mom relayed some hearsay

that it was there before the house was built so they weren't actually sure if it was part of the property at all. It was so far in fact that there was a large swath of old trees and bushes which covered the space between the structures It was dense, but you could see the garage peeking through the brush at night since the last owner's installed some automatic lights on the outside.

It wasn't exactly convenient, so we never really bothered to use it. It always was, and still is, just an empty building with stained concrete floors. Despite this, the automatic lights came on all the time at night. I guessed it was just small animals or my neighbour's dog running by. I imagine the sensors must have ludicrously wide range. With the property so small on the inside and unfathomably large on the outside, it was difficult to sit still indoors.

There was always new stuff to find. After starting school, I would regularly have a number of my friends come over and we'd spend all day, nearly all night, outside. I remember we'd often pretend to be Jedi's, chopping each other's limbs off with saber-like sticks while force jumping on the trampoline. I was more of a decapitation kind of guy.

I was always amused by the number of people who tried to convince me humans could survive without a head, and, even more often, deeply frustrated by those claiming it was just a scratch. Another favourite was hide-and-seek tag under the dark of night. Regular tag just didn't seem to satisfy us back then, so my sister and I would have friends over, only to send them off to hide in the pitch black. A seeker would look for,

with the hiders around the property, who would have to run to the safe point after they'd been spotted. If they were tagged, they joined the seeker in rooting out the rest of the players. There wasn't really any winning or losing, just a lot of running, hiding, and stretched out shirt collars. Anyway, the real story starts on one, particular summer night, probably about eight years ago. I would have been 12 at the time. It was late at night and my mom was working the night shift as usual. The creatures of the day had gone to sleep, and their nocturnal neighbours began to fill the air with chirps, croaks and howls. It wasn't uncommon to hear a branch to break under the weight of a deer's hoos as they pass by, deep in the woods. The sky was clear,

but the porch light on the house made it difficult to see any of the would-be stars above us. It was a new moon, too, so the sky manifested as an absolute void. Typically, the darker it was the more interesting the game was. In retrospect, I'm extremely relieved there wasn't any additional moonlight back then. There were six of us at the beginning, but as it grew dark, I had to say goodbye to two of my friends when their parents came by. It was getting quite late, after all. There were four of us remaining.

Leah, her friend Crystal, my friend Derek, and me. Everyone was about ready to go inside, panting and out of breath, when I suggested one more round of tag. Nobody was really interested at this point, but I enticed them by suggesting that the first one tagged would buy pizza. It sounded like a good idea at the time. A few games of rock paper scissors decided that Crystal would be the seeker this time around. She wasn't very fast, so I, being a cheeky bugger, wasn't going to bother hiding.

Instead, I was just going to run circles around her until she gave up, meaning she'd have to cough at the pizza by default. I wasn't the nicest kid back then, but I like to think I've changed, at least a little. In a previous game of tag, we had an issue where people wouldn't shout the number loudly enough, intentionally or not, allowing them to sneak up on people who weren't ready.

We found an interesting fix for this by making the seeker count out the seconds on the back of a metal pot, wrapping their knuckles against the material, holding it high in the air while facing the house. It carried the sound nicely and prevented the aforementioned head starts. Thankfully, our neighbours were too far away to hither racket and complain.

Crystal's knuckles began knocking, counting quicker than normal to avoid giving us too much of an advantage. I slipped around the corner of the house, waiting for my chance, not paying any mind to Leah and Eric as they faded into the night. When Crystal finally reached the 50 knocks

we had agreed upon many moons ago, the ringing began to subside. Everything went quiet. Even the cricket seemed to silence themselves under the suspense. I hadn't even started running yet and my heart was pounding in my chest. My hair was still damp with sweat from earlier. I kept listening for footsteps or to see her run by so the game of Cat and Mouse could begin. Yet, she never came.

Several minutes had passed and nothing seemed to change. I thought she might have given up or went in an entirely different direction. Either way, the anticipation was killing me. My impatient curiosity got the better of me as I peaked around the aluminium siding. A face, waddled in hair, stood right around the corner. His fingers were already stretched out towards me. I panicked.

Before I could turn to run, my sneakers slipped on the grass and I fell backward onto my ass as it approached. I tried using my hands to push myself backwards, but couldn't move fast enough. I looked up as the disheveled being's fingers moved quickly and jabbed into my shoulder. Not you, it was Crystal. She pushed her dark brown hair out of her face and reached down to help me up.

Unfortunately, my pre-bubescent ego and wounded pride rejected the offer. Instead, I opted to roll augly over and pushed myself back onto my feet. My panic had turned to shame. I was regretting the pizza thing now. Crystal crossed her arms, rightfully offended in my childishness. All right, she sighed. Well, I guess we just have to find the others, unless you don't want my help with that either, pizza boy.

Thankfully, I didn't have a snotty comeback, I'd have to repeat to you now. The excitement I felt earlier at a free pizza had become a distant memory. I was just eager to end the game and pretend the whole thing never happened. To make this go faster, I asked Crystal where she'd already looked. With a hint of embarrassment, she declared that she was actually waiting around that corner for an uncomfortably long time. I felt a little better, knowing we were both pretty dumb. As we stealthily walked around the property in search for the others, we whispered back and forth about the likelihood they were hiding together. It began to seem like the only option.

With each spot we checked, the number of possibilities dwindled until there was nowhere left to hide. nowhere, except for the forest. There was never any rule against hiding out in the dark woods. It just happened that it was too creepy for most people to hide out there alone, waiting to be found. However, after searching the entire property, the pieces started lining up in my head. What if they really were hiding together?

Crystal was fast to agree with my theory. Oh, totally. I bet they just tucked away behind some bush back there. She continued in a suggestive voice while raising an eyebrow. Maybe they want to be alone. I playfully wretched at the thought of Eric being into my sister. But who knows? Maybe Crystal was right.

Either way, they would definitely crouch down together somewhere in the dense undergrowth between my house and that old shed. I could just sense it. Yet, even though Crystal and I were working as a pair, I could tell neither of us had any intention of walking through those gnarled roots and thick trunks in the dead of night. We stood at the edge of the woods for a while, examining the sight line, and Crystal seemed to notice something.

She swiftly walked several paces to my right, leaned slightly, and brought her up her arm to a point. Hey, the light on that building turned on. I sidestepped until we were shoulder to shoulder. My eyes followed her outstretched finger, the same finger that probably left a bruise my shoulder. The garage light was on, cutting through the dark and allowing us to better examine the lush green space in front of us. I attempted to remediate my earlier cowardice by taking a few steps into the bushes. But I stopped as a swift breeze rustled the greener in front of me, and a snapping twig broke the forest's foul silence.

Butterflies began to fill my stomach, pushing outward and making my inside's turn. The sweat on my brown back went cold in the evening air, and a chill ran down my body. Even though I knew that was probably Eric and Leah, I couldn't ask my legs to move any further. In my head, we had found them. The light was enough confirmation for me. That would have to be good enough from my ego.

All right, you guys, we give up, seriously. We know you're back there. I shouted into the thicket, hoping my surrender would warrant feedback, ending the game. Crystal echoed my sentiment. cup in her hand around her mouth to carry a voice deep into the ancient woodland. Come on lovebirds, game's over. Maybe a minute passed as we returned to absolute silence.

The crickets and the frogs from earlier still seem to suppress their natural urges to speak up. Then another twig snapped. Two dark silhouettes stood up in the distance. They looked about equal in size, but shapeless and blurred against a faint light that broke up the dark miasma. Hey, we see you, come on out now. I followed Crystal's example, encircling my hands around my lips as I commanded the shadows. After a moment, they began walking towards us.

They were standing real close together. It sort of looked like they were holding something, maybe each other's hands. I remember being shocked that Crystal might have been right about Eric. It was dark and hard to tell, but I rolled my eyes anyway, just in case. Crystal and I gave each other a knowing smile

mixed with a look of exasperation, finally glad to be done with a seemingly endless hunt. From a distance, there was a call. Man, why do you guys give up so easily? It was definitely Eric. Crystal's smile melted away. Her lips ran parallel as a jaw dropped slightly.

Her relief turned to concern, slowly spreading across the entirety of her face and she gazed into the light slatted by black trees. Seriously, you two walked past us three times. It was definitely Leah. I knew that Crystal realized it just after I did. To a bystander, it must have looked like she was trying to mimic my face, mirroring the primal fear that crept up my spine and out of my eyes.

The silhouettes continued to approach us. My heart was pounding, but again, it wasn't from Rome. Errik and Lea were definitely together, just like we thought, but their voices weren't coming from the forest in front of us. They were definitely coming from behind us. I looked towards the house, but Eric and Lear weren't in view yet. When I turned back to confirm where the silhouettes once stood, I only found a deep, hungry blackness. The garage light had turned off. As Crystal continued to stare deep into the encroaching shadows of the woods,

I instinctively grabbed a wrist and began pulling her in the direction of our friend's voices. It was the one time of my life where I knew being a coward was the right choice. Eric and Leah came out near the road from the side of the fence. They began explaining how they were lying in the ditch on the other side, but I didn't care. It didn't matter where they were hiding unless they somehow figured out how to be in two places. at once. I tried to hide my anxiety under hushed tones, but spoke with urgency. Guys, don't freak out, but there's people in the woods. They both looked at me blankly, before casting skeptical looks at each other.

I didn't bother to watch the reactions as I continued to pull crystal inside. Branches continued to crack in the woods behind my house, just like they always did. But now, each snap that came closer brought me closer to tears. These weren't dear We all piled into the living room And I immediately began locking all the doors While Eric closed the windows and drew the blinds My bedroom was the largest room with a lock

So Leah ushered a near catatonic crystal inside and onto my bed I closed and latched the door behind us After grabbing a couple of knives from the kitchen I kept the lights off and joined everyone else Kneeling in the dark next to my bed Crystal and Leah were pressed up against the back of wall facing the door while Eric sat on the edge of the bed beside me. We waited in silence as I pulled out my cell phone.

Looking at the time, I expected my mom to be home any minute, so I sent her a text asking for an ETA. I get that it seems silly to text my mom and not call the authorities, but I never dialed 911 before and was afraid I'd be in trouble. I don't know why, but I thought at the time that once my mom was home, everything would be okay. I clutched my phone as a looming sense of dread filled the room. Footsteps could be heard, approaching outside, slowly pacing around the entirety of my bedroom. A sharp sound surprised us, and Leah moved her hand over Crystal's mouth, trying to stifle her rising panic. It sounded

like they might have thrown something at the house. Knock, knock. Two more staccato strikes came from behind my head. It was like they knew where we were. Knock. Another loud tap made me grip the knife tightly as I remembered what was happening. Knock, knock, knock. They weren't throwing things at the house.

They were outside my room, knocking on the walls. They knew we were in that room. Knock, knock, knock. The knocks continued moving both sides of the room. Large shadows filled the majority of the shuttered windows. I could hear a deep guitaral breathing outside, as though someone was trying to heave breaths in and out,

but copious amounts of phlegm blocked the way. I wondered what sort of being could make such a sound, but there was absolutely no way I was going to look. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Eric put his hand on my shoulder and whispered over the knocks, which grew in both number and intensity. How many people? did you say there were?

Two, I replied without thinking. I could tell my answer wasn't comforting as tremors emerged from Eric's hand, yet he refused to let go. Instead, his grasp tightened as he continued with a quiet stutter. Then, how are they knocking on every side of your room at once? My gut sank to the floor. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. I hadn't realised

knock, knock there were knocks coming from every direction on every wall of the room all at the same time knock knock knock

I could hear Leah whispering in the corner 25 26 27 crystal led out a muffled screen between Leah's fingers as what I assumed was laughter erupted from outside

it sounded like a pack of ghoulish, cackling coyotes. Except coyotes don't know how to knock. Knock, knock. As the cacophony of sound seemed to grow, I pulled out my phone again to call for the police, animal control, anyone. But my phone rang first.

It was my mom. My hand wouldn't stop shaking as I answered the call. Hey, hon, what's up? Are you almost home? I must have nearly screamed it. I could hear. hear her yelp on the other side of the line. Knock, knock, knock, knock.

I'm just about to pull down our road. Why? What's wrong? Leah, we're still going for some reason. 31, 32, 33. I wasn't sure what to say to my mom. But I can only think of one thing as the horrible sick laughter continued outside.

Please, just lay into your horn as soon as you pull up. Please, mom. Don't ask why. I was hoping the desperation would get through to her. She stuttered, clearly confused. Uh-huh. Okay, okay, I'm almost there, it'll be okay. I think she's always assumed that there was some kind of wild animal outside that we wanted to scare away.

God, I hope she was right. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. I looked at my friends and saw Leah covering her own mouth too now. tears dripped from the corner of her eyes as her head tilted back into the wall. 38, 39. Oh, my God. She choked out as she cried. She never explained to me what she figured out that night.

Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. The nauseating knocking had turned into a frenzied assault. The things outside began hammering against the aluminium siding, creating the most thunderous climax I'd ever heard. I slumped down and wept, having no idea what would happen when it was over. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Then, the sound, nearly as loud, pierced the night

and rivaled the demonic clanging from outside. The horn from my mom's car. The knocking stopped, immediately drowned out by the blaring siren coming from our short driveway. The shadows in front of the windows had moved away in the direction of the woods. Crystal broke free from Leah's grip and shouted, pleading for our saviour to come and get us. I didn't know if these things outside were a bunch of demented people or some group of diseased animals, but the sound of the vehicle was loud enough to scare them away.

But I knew it would only be for a minute or two. Guys, we've got to go, now, I cried out as I stood up. I took a quick look behind me to see that the others were already climbing to their feet, though Crystal took some coercion as she leaned into Leah. We ran down the hallway and out of the door. My mom was standing in front of the vehicle's headlights, beckoning us to open the doors.

I let everyone run past me towards her. I could hear her gasped lightly when she saw Eric run by, wielding her chef's knife. If I was going to get a look at these things that had been terrorising us, I figured now would have been my only chance. I grasped the edge of the extension,

took a breath, and looked. For better or worse, peering around the trailer, yielded no results. Whatever had been there was gone. I remember hearing a symphony of branches and tweaks, snapping in the dark, hidden just beyond the tree line. I held my gaze until my mom called for me. Then I merely turned tail and ran to the car.

As my mom backed up, I couldn't take my eyes off the woods. The headlights pointed directly into the blackness And I caught a glimpse of something It was fast so I could have imagined it In fact, I really hope I did Yet the image of it has been burned into my brain A pair of eyes caught the light Reflecting a haunting yellow back at us

From within the shadows The glowing retinas were embedded deep Into the seemingly exposed skull of a frail Deer-like creature that was hunched over almost like a grey tape. It lacked antlers, and its fur or skin was mostly black and patchy in some places, almost like its outermost layer was peeling back.

It reared backwards as the car screeched into drive, lifting one of its elongated sinewy arms tipped with three distinct fingers to shield its body. This image on its own was the stuff of nightmares, but what made me tear up again was what I saw as we drove away. For only a couple of seconds, as my mom turned to move to the road, the last bit of light revealed an ocean of twinkling stars throughout the forest.

Only, they weren't stars. It was an ocean of eyes. My mom sped off, and I found myself at a loss for words. We took Eric and Crystal back to their homes. I could barely manage a goodbye. It didn't take much convincing. for our mom to rent a room that night. Leo and I tried our best to explain what it transpired that night,

and, while I could tell that it was hard for my mom to understand, I could see that she believed the unfiltered terror in our voices. I don't blame her, though. I honestly still can't wrap my head around it either. Though the two of us were reluctant to return to the house in the morning, nothing seemed out of place when we arrived with a family friend, one who owned a rifle. Aside from some flattened grass and a strange musky odor, there wasn't much to look at.

I couldn't really pin the smell either, but it was enough to make Lear plug a nose while we looked around. I expected the siding to be bent out of shape because of the noises we heard, but it looked normal. I kept racking my brain over it. An animal trying to reach a spray wouldn't have held back or cared about denting the house. The more I thought, the more horrible. my theory became. What if it, or they, knew what they were doing? What if it did it specifically to scare us before?

I don't know. I'd really prefer not to know. Our mom took us to get a dog that same afternoon. He's some kind of mixed lab, and we named in Cooper. I don't know if having a dog really changed anything, but having Cooper round really helped us during my mom's late shifts. We never played tag at night again. and whatever came out of the woods that night never seemed to come back,

or, at the very least, never came out from behind the trees, from deep within the forest. Man, it seriously gives me chills just thinking about it now. While I've heard the strange laughter several times since, it was further away and much easier to blame on some animal. I feel better thinking it was just our overactive imaginations, rather than let that thing exist somewhere out there. I know it seems far-fetched, but it was real enough that Crystal never came back to our house. I don't have a good answer as to what happened that night. I'm hoping it was either some teenager playing a bad joke, or some sick animal that was displaced by a storm earlier that year.

But I guess we'll never know. I only feel comfortable thinking about this now, because I'm going back to the city tomorrow, and my mom will be moving into town at the end of the month. I'll admit, telling this now, has made me feel a little uneasy, especially since I haven't seen Cooper since this afternoon. He normally stays outside during the day, but tends to come scratching at the door once it's dark. I'm going to go look for him when my mom gets home,

if he's not back by then. Speaking of, it's getting near that time, and I think my mom is knocking on the front door right now. She joked about forgetting a housekey lately, and said she'd lose her head if it wasn't a tad. I guess she wasn't kidding. Hope to hear from you guys soon. I was browsing Reddit like I do every day,

chasing that sweet Seratona release from finding the dankest of content. I was cultivating my grown collection of Amongus memes, something I loved sending to all my friends, even though they'd long stopped responding to me. I think the problem was, I was sourcing them from easy to find places. The subreddits I browsed had thousands of maimates. What if one of my friends was there sharing these hilarious memes before me?

They were getting the chortle I deserved. My first solution was the browse by new. Very quickly, I found that the new page was a mindful of degeneracy. However, it gave me my best lead. There was a fresh meme that popped up. It was our red imposter. Ugh, I hate that guy. Popping out of a vent.

Instead of the usual punchlines you'd often see associated with this format. All he said was, for better Amongus memes, go here. However, it wasn't a normal link. It took some searching, but I found out it was a link for the deep web. I started sweating. I'd heard about that place from reading many creepypassers on the subject, so I'm something of an expert in the field. I was going to DM the upload of her information, but as quickly as I caught the meme, the user was deleted for spam. Immediately, that's how I knew this was real. Luckily, I saved it in my Amongus folder.

All I had to do was get on the deep web. It took several YouTube tutorials, but I eventually figured out how to get into the deep web with a secret shortcut I discovered, pressing Control Shift N in a new Chrome tab. I was browsing left and right, scanning for some coveted, rare dank memes. I didn't really know how to navigate the pages.

So I just clicked around randomly. But suddenly, a pop-up showed up. Play PS5 games today on your PC. I'm gone, I thought. PS5 games on my PC? My mind was boggled by the idea. There had to be a catch. And there was.

Below it was a contract. Something that would seal me into the cycle of this chase. I could walk away now, close everything. and go back to watching corpses in live streams or I could continue and see how far this rabbit hole goes underneath was the text click here to find out more

and once clicked I was locked into the game there were a list of rules each seemed simple but I was cautious nonetheless I had to download the file and run it step one sounded easy

however there was a problem PS5 game files would be rather huge and I had no space on my computer so I had to make room I was worried that I didn't have time to filter out what to delete so I hastily deleted the largest folder on my computer my collection of Overwatch Futur SFM compilations a single tear rolled down my cheek at the loss

but a smile turned on the corners of my mouth at the potential I could gain the EXC file was small and I quickly tried to run it, but I hit another snag. My free trial of AVG kept trying to block it from running. Every time it had quarantined the file and delete it. I was furious.

I wasn't ready to give up. However, I couldn't stop AVG from doing this, so I only installed AVG as fast as I could. Now, nothing was in the way for the EXE to run. I booted up the executable, and this is where things got crazy. All of my open program shut down. All my files disappeared.

All that remained was a window. It had a message for me. Your files are now encrypted for protection. To get them back, I had to send a payment of 500 pounds within a week, or they'd be deleted forever. I may have lost my Overwatch SFM compilations, but I'd be damned if I lost my Feet Boy Fempix. A sobering thought came to me.

What if this was part of the trials? In a way, these were more rules. After the transaction, I was now 500 pounds in the hall. Luckily, years ago, I bought a few hundred Bitcoin at $10 each and saw them when it hit 11, making a tidy profit. My computer returned to normal, and I was relieved that my Femboy folder would still be there. But I realised that because all my programs closed,

the instructions for the PS5 games emulator was gone. I clicked around the deep web looking for it again, but because it randomly came up, I couldn't just find it. It seemed I was chosen, but wasn't good enough, and it left me, much like every girl I talked to. I tried the EXE again,

but all it did was lock my computer over and over. After five more attempts and two thousand five hundred pounds in the hole, I eventually settled that this wasn't the solution, But if there's something the Wikipedia page of the sunk cost fallacy will tell you is that I was in too deep to give up. I opened the deep web back up with a secret shortcut I discovered, pressing Control Shift N, and clicked on every link I could find, regardless of what it was.

I found sites the higher hitmen made out of drugs, pictures of Bitcoin's, information on the next pandemic. I was nearing the back pages of the internet when something jumped up at me. another pop-up, another chance. I started to sweat. Hands trembling, I opened the page, apprehensive of what the new rules would demand. The promise was less than before, possibly a punishment for my previous transgressions.

If I succeeded, I could possibly win a free iPad. I just had to accept the conditions. I clicked through, not even contemplating any negatives and was instantly taken to a page of white boxes. It seemed these were mini riddles. Each one had to be filled in, with only a small prompt for each answer on the left. I had one chance, and I didn't want to screw up again, so I concentrated as hard as I could. The first riddle was simple.

The prompt was name. Easy. I put my name in and moved on to the next. First line of address. Easy again. The second line, town, postcode, county than country, all too easy. It seemed I was being tested, because after this string of easy answers, was the numbers riddle. All it said was C C, and the answer was a 16-digit number.

This stunted me for a while. I couldn't just guess. To guess, a 16-digit number would be harder than winning the lottery. However, I still had my wallet out from the EXE fiasco. the EXE fiasco from earlier and was struck with divine inspiration. C.C. Credit card. This held a 16-digit number on the front. Excited, I filled it in.

Next, expiry. Well, now that I had the key for the riddle, this was easy too. The hardest one was similar to that part in Metal Gear Solid 1, where you had to find Merrill's Kodick number on the back of the CD case. But in this case, I had to find the three. three-digit code on the back of my card. How genius! Once all the tasks were complete,

and I was happy with my answers, I submitted them. All I was left with was a thank-you message, and the window closed. I waited a bit to see if anything would happen. Nothing else came up. My phone buzzed with calls, but they were only for my bank

about something to do with my card. No idea what it was about, so I just hung up. After all this, my heart was broken. I followed every instruction to the T, just like they do in all those rule stories on no sleep that totally aren't repetitive.

Yet, I couldn't get the PS5 games emulated to work, nor did I hear about the free iPad. There is a silver lining, though. While looking for the Amongus memes I was previously here for, I got some news that picked up my speed. Apparently, there are some hot singles in my area. How many doors did you open today? What about in the last week, month or year?

What about your entire lifetime? The answer to that is probably many. Yet, if you're listening to this now, probably not enough of them. So consider yourself lucky, or luckier than me at any rate. My ordeal started about five months ago. It was a usual day. Wake up, go to work, be bored out of my mind. Only it was a night.

I worked the night shift at a small pawn shop, and the night passed at a glacial pace. That's usually good news, as I'd browse the internet on my phone. But my charger did that thing when you sleep, and it just bloody disconnects, leaving you with no battery to speak of. And, me being me,

I didn't notice until... I got to work. Great. So, I was alone and bored out of my mind for some ten hours. But the night eventually passed. A co-worker came in as morning broke, so I left. On my way to the car, I stopped at a local mart and grabbed a couple of sandwiches and a water bottle. I was too lazy to make myself something to eat when I get home,

so I figured I just wolfed down the sandwiches and go to sleep. The commute was only ten minutes long. and it passed in a blur as I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to anything. My mind had melted under the boredom to the point that I couldn't wait to get home and plug my phone into watch some YouTube.

I pulled up in my driveway and went for the entrance, fumbling for my keys. When I finally found them, I opened the door and entered, still not paying attention to my surroundings. Had I been a little less negligent, had I looked inside before going in, my life would have been so different today.

but I didn't. The door clicked shut behind me and I made my way to the kitchen through the corridor. I was also searching through my backpack for one of the sandwiches. I finally noticed something was off when I reached for the place where the table should have been but I didn't bump into it. There was supposed to be a chair here for me to sit down and eat my meal

but there was nothing. I looked up frantically and noticed the table was gone entirely along with all of the furniture in my kitchen, the drawers, the fridge, even the damn sink. Not a trace of them remained. I was dumbfounded to say the least. Did someone break in and steal everything while I was gone? But why?

How? On a closer inspection though, I realised it hadn't been thieves because the sink's train was gone, replaced by a smooth wall instead. No one could have done this in the ten hours I was at once. work, and even if they could have, I couldn't fathom a reason for them to. Looking up, I saw the light bulb was gone as well.

At that point, I started freaking out badly, because light still emanated from where I used to be. I grabbed my backpack and ran to the front door, hastily opening it. The street... ...was gone. In its place, only another empty room. I let out a yelp of surprise mixed with fear as I frowned. in the doorway. What the hell was going on? Remembering my phone, I pulled it out and prayed that it still had some battery, but I was out of luck. The thing was dead. I took a few minutes

to calm down and decide what to do. My breath smoothed out after a while, and I felt confident enough not to have a panic attack, so I closed my eyes and opened the door again. Still, a room instead of the street. Crap. I explored the rest of the house, hoping to find something that would have helped me understand. But every room was the same story. All the furniture was gone. The walls were uncharacteristically smooth and featureless,

and the light bulbs were nowhere to be seen, even though there was plenty of light to go around. I had hoped against all odds that I'd find my landline phone in the living room, But I think you can guess how well that went. I don't know how much time I spent, curled up on the floor of the living room, just crying. And I don't know how much time I spent opening and closing the front door, hoping it would finally reveal the street to me. Many hours, at any rate, until I finally gave up and decided to take a leap of faith.

I entered the room the front door led to, closed it behind me, and opened the door again. Now my corridor was gone. It's placed taken by a small room with a singular door on the other side. If someone would have been there with me, they could have pointed out the exact moment my soul shattered by the pop it made. But no one was there. I was all alone and lost in a twilight zone of empty rooms. I sat down, pulled my backpack in my lap and took a sip of water.

I didn't feel hungry yet, so I decided not to touch the sandwiches. With only two of them and a liter of water, I had to make them last. My mind went into survival mode, and I didn't know how long I'd be here or how to get out. I eventually decided to take a nap, as I was still tired from the night shift I'd been through. I decided I'd have a better chance at figuring things out if I was rested.

Sleep came swiftly, but it was fitful and as bland as the room. room I was in. I didn't dream at all, and I constantly woke up feeling paranoid, like someone or something was watching me. The fifth time that happened, I jumped to my feet. The room was dark now. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. After I was done dropping bricks, I thought I'd died and was now in some sort of hell, but I walked around slowly and still found the walls of the room in about the places I expected. It clicked to my head

It was night time This place Wherever or whatever it was Kept track of the time outside I huddled myself in one of the corners And waited for the light to return That took a few hours But with nothing to draw my attention

And excite my senses It felt like a small eternity There was only me The darkness, the sound of my occasional breath and the pulse of my heart pounding in my ears. I thought I'd go crazy, that I'd start to hallucinate any moment now. But then I noticed the small inkling of light emanating from the ceiling.

Dawn was coming. The light slowly grew in intensity, mirroring the pace of a sunrise, but I didn't wait any longer. The moment I could see even past the vagus of shapes, I got up and on the move. Despite the poor quality of my sleep, I felt rested and refreshed, so I started exploring. Door after door, room after room, all I found was more of the same.

The walls were different colours and the shapes of the rooms buried to mirror their purpose. A small closet, a garage, a bathroom, a corridor once in a while. But other than that, they were all the same. For a split second, I felt like I was in a video game and I'd entered an area that I wasn't supposed to. A building the devs didn't flesh out because no one was meant to enter it. Only this was reality.

At one point, I got an idea. I kept finding windows, which, although they didn't show anything on the other side and were flushed with the walls, I thought maybe would lead somewhere. So I threw my water bottle against one of them hoping to shatter it, but it bounced right off and rolled at my feet. The next few days was spent going from room to room, only stopping at night when I couldn't see a damn thing.

But I made a few interesting discoveries, if you want to call on that. About how this place and my body worked now. Closing the door randomized the room on the other side, so you could walk in a circle without going in the same room twice. As soon as the door left your direct line of sight, even if you left it open, it would close on its own. This one I figured out, after I had the bright idea of not closing any doors behind me, hoping I'd managed to figure out how big the place was. I didn't need sleep, or at least I didn't need it as often as I normally would.

Despite a few days having passed at that point, I didn't feel tired, and I only slept through the first night I spent there. Same went for food and water. I didn't feel hungry or thirsty, even though I still had both sandwiches and the water bottle was missing and the few sips I took on the first day. That was either a curse or a blessing,

depending on how you chose to look at it. It would give me more time to find a way out, but it had the potential of prolonging my suffering immensely if I didn't. I decided to take it as a blessing for the time being and kept going. Room after room, day in and day out. I think I opened more doors in that time than I would have in my entire life otherwise.

But, after roughly a week, I finally found something that wasn't just another bland wall. Though, I wished I hadn't. The first thing that hit me as I entered another room was the gut-wrenching smell. It was stagnant and putrid, to the point that it made me rich and made my eyes water. I slowly looked up and found red trails adorning the floor. They had a radial pattern that led back to a common source and looked as if they flowed at one point or another. As my eyes followed them, slow and uncertain,

my gaze came upon something in the corner. It was a dry husk with his back against the wall and his hands beside its body. The trails led to its wrists, and I could see bone beneath the mummified skin. Words were strewn on the wall behind it, in the same red colour as the trails on the floor. I backed up slowly as the realisation hit me like a truck.

This person, whoever he or she might have been, was like me at some point. Someone stuck in here that couldn't take it anymore and decided to end it all. That was their only way out, their only release. and I feared more and more each day that it would eventually be my only option as well. For hours I fought back the urge to leave the room and shut the door behind me.

The reality of what I was facing sunk deeper and deeper into my soul, bringing with it despair and a feeling of complete helplessness. Many slaps later, I managed to snap myself out of it and approached the corpse to inspect it. I thought that maybe they'd have something useful on them, though what exactly that would have been I had no idea. Certainly no food or water.

Else, they might not have taken their own life, and certainly not a map that led outside, or else I'd not have found them here like this. I fashioned a mask to cover my mouth and nose out of my t-shirt, and walked over to it slowly. The words behind it came into view as I got closer, and I could read them when I was a few steps away. Beware the dark.

Don't follow the footsteps. The eyes. Oh God, the eyes. Make it stop. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but that was the gist of it. Short sentences with an ominous feeling to them. They certainly did a good job of making me feel like I drowned in dread. I tried to puzzle them together and draw some meaning from them. But I couldn't.

What eyes? What footsteps? I'd been here for more than a week now, but besides the sounds I made myself, I didn't hear anything. I was still terrified reading it though. I kneeled down next of the corpse

and started pulling on its clothes in search of pockets. It was dressed pretty blandly, jeans and a t-shirt, so I not found much. One of the front pockets of the jeans revealed a phone with no battery and the back pocket revealed a wallet.

There was a bit of cash in it, a few bills and coins, but I decided not to even count it, let alone to tell you. take it. But I found an ID and a driver's license and took those. I figured that if I ever get out, the least I could do was turn these in and let their relatives know of their fate. His name was Brandon, an average-looking 25-year-old guy with dirty blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. He didn't deserve his fate, and I didn't either. I found nothing else on him, so I decided to move on.

Staying put wouldn't do me any good, and, after finding Brandon's corpse, I felt a renewed sense of urgency. The next few days followed the same pattern as before, stopping only at nightfall. Before, I moved as long as I could see, but with Brandon's warning to beware the dark, I began stopping the moment the light started to fade.

I was itching to move, to keep my mind occupied so it wouldn't collapse in on me, but I was afraid. I didn't need to see any monsters on top of all I'd been through. As the second week came and passed, I was certain I'd travel for dozens of miles now, and more or less in a straight line too.

I'd grown properly hungry in the meantime, so I ate one of the sandwiches and held on to the other one until I'd literally be starving. I was also down to half a bottle of water, but if my body kept it up at the same rate, these mega supplies would have lasted me a month or two. That was unless I'd have found her. As I entered another room, I saw someone huddled in a corner.

Thinking it was a corpse, I approached it slowly, my nerves on their ends. It looked shrivelled and malnourished, but I couldn't tell if it had been dead for long now. Decomposition was probably affected the same way as my hunger and my thirst, which was why my sandwich went stale, but was still edible. But then she opened her eyes, looked at me with horror, and started to scream. I covered my ears to shield them from the loud screech, and it took everything I had in me not to bolt it out of the door. She screamed for a solid 30 seconds before she stopped to gasp for air, but I could see she was ready to do it again. Stop that, I yelled, I won't hurt you.

She opened her eyes, and they were wide with surprise. a look of disbelief and then a relief washed over her features and she huddled down tighter help me please oh god if you're a real human help me

I rushed over to her and kneeled down she looked bad but knowing she was still alive in her condition made it so much worse her face was scrawny the skin pulled taut over her bones her clothes looked a few sizes too big

hanging loosely on a frame. Her hair was disheveled, dirty, and punches of it have fallen off to reveal her bare scalp. What happened to you? I asked, although I probably knew the answer. Do you have anything to eat or some water? she asked. I considered for a moment to lie and tell her no, but I couldn't have lived with myself if I did that. However long I still had to live anyway. I opened my backpack and offered her the sandwich. She warped it down in a few seconds and then licked the plastic wrap clean.

Thank you so much, she said after she was done. I haven't eaten in months. I gave her the water bottle too and told her to drink it slowly. I was no expert in malnutrition and starvation, but I knew that if the stomach is empty for a long time, it's not a good idea to stuff it all of a sudden. She, of course, didn't listen to me and drank the water in a few gulps.

I couldn't really blame her, though. I can't even imagine what it feels like to not eat or drink for months. We stood in silence for a while, as I allowed her to regain some composure. She eventually opened her mouth and started to talk, and to this day,

I still regret hearing her words. Have you seen it yet? She asked. See what? I asked back. So you didn't travel through the dark then? She continued. No, I haven't, I answered.

I can't see anything, so when night comes I stay put. Good, she said. You didn't answer me, though. See what? I asked again. I tried to get more out of her, but my attempt were met with failure. She didn't evade my questions.

She outright shot them down and told me it was for my own good. Seeing that I didn't relent, however, she eventually told me something. Listen, you really are better off not knowing. Believe me, just don't travel through the dark, and you will be safe. Fine, I said, accepting defeat.

The terror in her voice was not hidden at all. It was laid thick on every word. she spoke, so I didn't pester her further. Still, her questions and cryptic words felt eerily familiar. Brandon's words, written in blood, came to mind. Beware the dark. I stayed by aside as the day passed and night settled, even though I was itching to get on the move again. I'd not seen another human or spoke to anyone in over two weeks, and, although I thought I'd never miss it, that changed. I was starved for conversation, for interaction, and most importantly, for information.

Her name was Vanessa. She was 25 years old, and I'd been living a few towns over from me. One day, three months before I found her, she went to the bathroom in her own apartment. Pre-arcupied with her phone, she didn't check on the room she entered. Only when the door was shut behind her, and she was cut off from the world outside, did she notice something was up? By then it was too late, and she'd been trapped in here ever since. Her story sent chills down my spine, as it was very similar to mine.

In a moment of distraction, she walked through a door she'd opened countless times before, only for it to lead her here. The gears in my head started spinning as I began to theorise the how and why. I knew these rooms are copies of real ones. That much was evident from day one, seeing as I'd entered my own house and thought someone had stolen all of my furniture and I knew they were randomised upon closing the doors

but where was this place outside of our reality did we enter it because we weren't paying attention or was it something like quantum mechanics where the content of the room weren't decided until they were observed that I didn't know it could have been any one of them

a combination of them or something else entirely Anyway, after me and Vanessa talked some more, she fell asleep. She was obviously weak, so I didn't wake her. I stood by her side as a light slowly dimmed, hoping she'd get enough strength back the next day to walk. I myself couldn't sleep. In fact, ever since I'd gotten here, I only slept that one time through the first night. The rest of them I spent awake, pondering my predicament and my life thus far. Tonight I was glad to have someone next to me, even though all I could hear was her steady breathing.

I wasn't alone anymore. About halfway through the night, I got up and paced around through the room for a bit to stretch my legs. I do this every night to stop my muscles from going stiff, but I never left the rooms I was in. At one point I stopped, after maybe ten minutes of walking in circles. I listened for Vanessa so I could return next to her. and it didn't take me long to pick up on a breathing. But before I could take a single step towards her, I heard footsteps.

I stood as still as I could, listening, hoping my mind was only playing tricks on me, but it wasn't. Although they were faint and sounded like they came from far away, I could clearly make out every single step. They were slow, with a few seconds between them, but they followed a steady one. rhythm. I turned to face the direction they seemed to come from and took a few steps of my own,

slow and careful not to make a sound. I hinged forward until my out-tressed hand met the wood of the door. I leaned against it, pressing my ear in the wood, and heard the footsteps clearer. I hoped it would be another person. I hoped Vanessa and I would get another companion to help us out. but the more I listened, the more that hope was eroded away, until it was shattered entirely. The steps were too heavy for a normal human, too drawn out, and besides that, the room they seemed to come from wasn't decided yet. For all intents and purposes, I shouldn't have been able to hear them. The moment that realization hit me, Brandon's warnings and Vanessa's question suddenly made sense.

A deep sense of dread and fear took over me, and I made my way next to Vanessa without even taking a single breath. The night passed one heartbeat at a time, one footstep at a time, because they never went away, not until light returned in full. At that point, I woke Vanessa up.

She came to a senses slowly and noticed the change of my demeanor. Did you see it? Was the first thing she asked me. No, I answered. Did you hear the footsteps then? She continued with the questioning. Yes, I admitted, but I didn't follow them.

We should be safe then, she said after a long pause. Vanessa tried to get up on her own, but she couldn't. She was still too weak, and we both doubted a sandwich and a bit of water would change. that. I helped her to a feet and threw one of her arms around my shoulders, basically dragging her along. You don't have to, she said as we walked towards the door opposite of the footsteps I heard during the night. I'm not going by myself, I cut a short. If I spend another night awake by myself, I'll lose it. She didn't say anything else. Having been alone for the past

months, she probably understood me. We spent the next day in a straight line, door after door, hoping one of them would lead us outside. It hadn't, of course, and by nightfall, we stopped once again.

I sat Vanessa down in a corner and laid next to her. She lifted a right pant leg to reveal her shin, and I saw it was full of straight cuts in various angles of healing. I didn't know what to make of them, but they looked suspiciously. like tally marks.

With the nail of her thumb, she cut another line into her skin. She winced a bit, but didn't let out a sound. Seeing my confusion, she started explaining. I'm counting the days I've been here, she said.

On your skin? I asked and nerved by it. I've got nothing else, she said. We talked a bit more, mostly, about our lives. She had finished high school, but didn't pursue higher education. That left her working at a restaurant as a waitress to make a living.

There, she met a man who would soon become a boyfriend, and then fiancé. He was the son of the owner, but, from what Vanessa told me, he worked with him whenever he was needed. He sounded like a swell guy, to be honest. Anyway, the two of them moved into an apartment by themselves a year prior, and they'd been happy together. Vanessa said she could already see the rest of her life with him. Until, well, this happened to her. I told her I was in a similar position to hers, working a dead end job in order to scrape by.

Only I'd wasted years of my life going to college, getting a degree that never led me anywhere. I still lived with my parents in a small suburban home, hoping to find someone to share my days with and maybe start a family. You can guess how well that went, I said, trying to pass it off as a joke. Vanessa managed to giggle, but could tell she didn't really taste my joke.

I don't blame her, but I always found humour alleviates bad situations for me. We kept talking until the lights vanished almost completely, and we'd have done it even after that, probably all through the night. But something we heard stopped us. The footsteps. The God-Dame for the goddamn front of the night.

footsteps. They returned as the last rays were gone, seemingly closer than last night, listening in anticipation for what must have been ours. We huddled closer together, bunching into one another for a fleeting sense of safety. The night eventually passed, and we were both still alive by the end of it, scared out of our minds, but alive. We spent about two more months travelling together, passing the days with small talk, and the nights fearing for our lives. The footsteps got closer some nights, but if we kept quiet, they wouldn't approach us.

We both got weak above the day, withering away to hunger and thirst, but Vanessa was much worse off than me. I didn't think someone could be that thin and still alive, and I think only a world to survive and see through this kept you alive at that point. We'd made very little progress for a few days, and I guess we both knew.

that she didn't have long left, but I refused to acknowledge it. One evening, as we stopped for the day, she was too weak to even talk with me. She went straight to sleep, which worried me, since I didn't need sleep once since I'd met her. When morning finally came, and she woke up, she kept uncharacteristically silent. I waited half an hour for her to wake up fully before I suggested we get on the move again. But she stopped me. Just leave me, she said in a weak, sad voice.

We both know I don't have much left, and I'm only slowing you down. No, I protested. This is not some movie. You're not doing some heroic sacrifice for me? She didn't even bite me about it. Maybe she was too weak to, or maybe she simply didn't care anymore,

knowing we both meet her end in it regardless. Fine. She accepted my decision after a while, but at least let me tell you the truth. God knows how much time I have left, and this might be my last chance to. I wanted to stop her, to contradict her, and reassure her we'd make it eventually.

But I listened. I was curious, but I didn't want to risk braving this place alone without knowing exactly what I'm in for. There's something in here with us, she said. after a long pause. I don't know exactly what it is,

but it's hunting us down. If you move during the night, it picks up on you, I think. Then it will start circling the rooms in search of you, making those footsteps we've been hearing. If you make noise, or if you follow the footsteps, it can find you.

Did you see it? I did, she admitted, with a surprising calmness. When I first got here, actually. I ran around for a few days, even through the dark. One night I pumped into it, but I didn't get a good look at it. I ran away like hell, and I guess I lost it. How did it look? I asked, even though I was sure I'd regret finding out.

Tall, gaunt, spindly limbs, Vanessa said, and paused for a moment. Her sight got lost in empty space, and for a few heartbeats, I was sure that. she wasn't there with me anymore on a mental level. And those eyes, she eventually added, red and shining and... Tears formed her inner eyes and flowed down her cheeks, but her expression didn't change to reflect that. Haunting?

I asked. She nodded her head. Okay, I said. That's enough. I'm not sure I want to hear more, and I'm pretty sure it's not doing you any good to try and remember more. She, yeshebushly nodded ahead again, so we closed the subject. We got on the move at a glacial pace, with breaks every other hour or so for her to catch a breath.

We mostly kept silent, with barely a few words exchanged between us, but I still appreciated her presence. I think another week or so passed, and Vanessa withered away visibly by the day. It wasn't long before she couldn't walk anymore, and she kept insisting that I either leave her or But I didn't do either, couldn't do either, at least not in the meantime. For as long as I was able, I'd carry around in my back, which is exactly what I did. And even though she was more bone than flesh at that point, she still felt very heavy, a clear sign of my own degradation. We travelled less and less, starting up later and stopping sooner every day.

Vanessa kept tallying the days in her skin, until she ran out of room on her legs and had to move onto her forearms. Bored one evening, we counted the marks and we found out that she'd been in here for a little over six months. At the right time going, she said after a while.

I have maybe another month left. She didn't bring it up again, but I knew from the look in her eyes that she was afraid. Despite her inhuman amount of resolve, she feared what another month in her condition would mean. so much pain, so much suffering, and although she never said it, I knew she was angry with me, refusing to end it for her.

That night was the first time I slept as well, and I can't describe how good it felt. Escaping the hell I was in for even a few hours was a blessing. But, unfortunately, I didn't get to relish in it for too long. All of the stress, all of the anxiety, and all of the worries had built up in me. They turned into nightmares. and ruined my rest. I dreamt of Vanessa dying,

of me crying over a lifeless body. My resolve continued to shatter. But then she opened her eyes and reached a skeletal arm out towards me. I tried to scream and back away from her. But you know how well that goes in dreams. I was paralysed. The yells frozen in my throat

and she threw me to the ground effortlessly. Why didn't you kill? me, she asked, climbing over me and wrapping her fingers around my throat. I couldn't answer, and I could in fact barely fight her. I thrust around beneath her and tried to scream again and again, but I was only met with failure. The struggle didn't last for long. Fortunately, the real Vanessa woke me up, but I led out a single, loud screech as I came

to and regained control of my body. It's all right, it's okay, you're okay. She whispered and covered my mouth. The silence that engulfed us was all too consuming, that I heard the beating of my own heart in my ears. I kept quiet as the shock of the nightmare faded away, and Vanessa did the same, not making her single sound. I could barely hear her breathing.

All my senses adjusted, I heard something faint and distant. Footsteps somewhere far away, and doors squeaking as they open and closed. They got closer and closer, and I knew that the creature heard my screams. It was only a matter of time until he would reach us. We have to move, I whispered to Vanessa. We will be found. We can't outrun it, Vanessa said, and it'll hear us.

It'll hear the doors. The footsteps got even closer, to the point I could tell them apart. The creature was only a few rooms away at best. We don't have a choice, I said as I cut to my feet. Let's go, we'll figure something out. I didn't wait for Vanessa to answer. The footsteps were maybe two rooms away. We didn't have time to argue any longer.

I took her hands and pulled her to her feet, getting her on my back and taken off. I tried my best and move as quietly as possible. But as soon as I opened the first door, the footsteps quickened behind us. The door to our room opened just as we left it and I heard a guitar or scream from behind. That was all I needed to convince me to throw all caution aside. I sped up, not quite running but hurrying to the best of my abilities. I went at random, opening and closing all the doors in my wake

but the creature was onto us. I didn't have the strength to go any faster and lose it. It soon caught up to us and I turned my head around in time to get a glimpse of it. Dred invaded me at the sight of its glowing eyes filled with malice, and I almost tripped right then and there, but kept going, and by some miracle, I stayed ahead of it for a little while longer. Leave me, Vanessa urged. I'm a goner anyway. I'll buy you some time to get away.

No way in hell, I yelled back at her, not an option. The next room was the flight of stairs, with no other route in sight. I could barely make out a door all the way up, and with the way I came from, blocked by the creature, I started ascending. I don't think I made it five steps before I tripped and was forced to continue on all fours. Vanessa was barely hanging on to me,

and I felt a grip around my throat loosen. Whether or not she was letting go intentionally, I'll never know. Your guess is as good as mine. At any rate, she didn't get to fall off my back. The creature caught up to us, bounding up the stairs like a crazed animal, and it got its calloused hands around my ankle. I tried to kick it away, to keep going,

but in a single motion it hurled me through the air and back down the stairs. I landed hard on my back, getting the air knocked out of me. I had Vanessa crashing to the floor somewhere to my right. Through the stars in my vision, I could vaguely make out of form in the murky darkness, and she was completely still. Vanessa, I yelled, crawling towards her. Just go, she yelled back.

Get. Her words were cut short by the creature as it plowed into her. It picked her up off the ground so fast that its spindly body was just a blur of shadows and movement. I heard a loud thud as it pinned Vanessa against the wall, and I heard a gargle as she tried to scream. Her eyes locked for a final time, and behind a gaze,

I saw a terrifying calm, an acceptance of a fate that I didn't think possible. She mouthed, go, one final time, and her eyes left mine, moving to meet those of the creature. I didn't want to. My heart screamed at me to stay, to help, to fight. But my tired malnourge body fought me back, and I found myself turning around, limping away in all fours. As I reached the door and left the room, I had to reach the door and left the room, I had to be a tired, a sickening sound of flesh and bone being torn apart as the creature led out squeals of satisfaction. It won. It got its prey.

I went as fast as I could, closing all the doors behind me, hoping that the rooms would get reshoveled and I'd be safe. More than once I was tempted to do with a stop or outright turn around, because what was the point? But I kept going, until my lungs burned and my souls felt raw. The human survival spirit is a hell of a thing. After Vanessa's death, I have no idea how much time passed. Days, weeks, a month. Even slowed down as it was, hunger and dehydration were finally catching up to me, and I soon started resembling the state that Vanessa had been in during her final days.

With my conscious lapsing in and out, spending more and more time sleeping each day, I picked a room and decided to just give up, to let myself die and end the nightmare. But that didn't get to happen, obviously. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here telling you my story. One fateful evening, as the lights in the room dimmed to almost nothing, one of the doors opened. Two figures walked inside, shining flashlights in my face.

I opened my crusted eyes slowly and tried to speak, but all that escaped my mouth was a threat. Brody rasp. Bloody hell, mate, one of the figures said in a thick British accent. He's still alive, get him out. More people appeared behind the two, banishing shotguns and firemen axes. Two of them grabbed me by the feet and arms, hauling me up and carrying me along. I passed out on the way, but I was conscious for long enough to notice that they left every door open behind them.

They also spread a thick steel rope as they went, which kept the doors from closing. and shuffling. I made it out of the backrooms, four months after I entered, and I woke up in a small town in northern Alaska. Seeing as I am from West Virginia, I was quite a ways away from home. The local doctor defied odds in treating me, and his idea of keeping me in the back rooms for another day while he gave me liquids and glucose was quite smart. He feared that bringing me back outside to the real world would have caused my body to instantly collapse and die. I didn't get to meet my saviors. By the time I woke up, after a few days of non-stop sleeping, they were already gone.

A pair of monster hunters named Damien, the British guy, and his apprentice named Miles. That's all I managed to get out of the locals. Men in black arrived before long, and they're made of a story about me being kidnapped by human traffickers for unknown reasons. When we're all on the same page, they contacted my family to let them know, that I was alive. Transport was arranged for me to return back home, and I made it without incident. But my life hasn't been the same since. For starters, I removed all of the unnecessary doors in my home, and I replaced the rest

with glass ones, so that I could always see what laid on the other side. Unfortunately, I was unable to share Brandon's and Vanessa's fates with their families, and not from lack of trying. Believe me, I did try. But from the day I got home, the men in black have been keeping me under surveillance. For how long they'll keep it up, I don't know. I'm not even sure who they work for, beyond the nebulous concept that they're part of some branch of the government. Anyway, that's all I got.

I wish I had a better resolution, a happy ending, but I don't. I'm a scarred and traumatized shell. of the person I used to be, a nomads of therapy in meds can fix me, and I'll forever be paranoid when opening doors. I will never again, in my life, enter a room without checking what on the other side first. I've always loved the woods. There's nothing quite like it, being in nature, the green and brown foliage, the skipping rivers and streams, the bird calls and winds and the trees.

A beautiful world, alive with animals and plants, Majesty, around every corner, from the smallest sprout to the tallest mountainous peaks. The whole forest is one community in a way, tree roots like hands holding each other beneath the soil, sharing memories unspoken. Sorry, I got a little carried away. I'm rather passionate about nature. Since I was a kid at church camp, and I went hiking for the very first time, I found myself a total outdoors nut.

and earlier last year I finally got my dream job a park ranger position at the biggest national park in Ontario Pocosur National Park working at the northernmost HQ when the virus hit it was hard for all of us

the park ended up closing to visitors luckily I kept my job I ended up staying at the HQ for the first portion of lockdown with a few colleagues normally national parks closed the visitors for the winter which obviously makes sense.

It's the most dangerous time of year for hikers and campers. Quarantine kept us closed the entire year, so it wasn't anything new. Pucasaur is no different in terms of its closing policy, but it was different in the sense that some of us rangers ended up having to stay at the HQ over the winter. There was no fear of fire, obviously. We were shaping up for a frigid and snowy winter.

But, as I was confused about the reason, my co-workers didn't raise a fuss. They knew exactly what we were in for. I asked Chris what was going on and he looked at me with an expression like, You don't know? Don't sweat it, Max. There's nothing to worry about.

In the past, we've had people jump the fence to getting during the off-season, so upper management just wants us to keep an eye out to make sure nobody gets in and gets themselves out, he assured me. I felt comforted by the sentiment, figuring it'd be a piece of cake. The only issue is that, I know this seems contradictory to my previous statement about nature,

but I felt an uneasiness about the whole situation. Laugh at me all you want, but I've always had a sort of paranoia about winter. It's by far the most dangerous time to be outside, especially in a place like the forest. In the spring, you fear the rain, being drenched and catching a chill. In the summer and early autumn, you fear wildfires. and in all three seasons you fear the animals. But in winter, the cold alone is enough to kill you, being caught in a blizzard, or even just spending the night with no shelter.

The thick layer of snow hides everything. One wrong step could send you falling into a frozen lake or a tree well. The animals are less of a fear. The bears are asleep in the caves and the wolves won't ever get close. With that only makes the place even more frightening to me. In winter, a forest doesn't feel like a forest. The trees have shed their leaves and the animals are hidden away. It's deathly quiet out there.

Everything is muffled. The loneliness itches at you when you're out that far. The days feel like open mouths. It's only as the sun dips below the horizon that you truly see the teeth around you. I remember being young and asking my pastor why God would ever make winter. if it was so difficult for anything to survive in it. I didn't get a straight answer from him. But I digress.

You understand what I'm getting at now. Suffice to say, I had my anxieties about spending the winter so close to the woods. I recall every morning waking up in my room, and although the presence of five other people in the HQ with me, brought me comfort, feeling uneasy. I would get dressed in the morning. enjoy a meal cooked by Priya around a table with my friends, lace up my boots and zip up my coat,

and then it would be time for work. I felt childish for it, but I would deviate from my path of patrol frequently to seek out my fellow rangers, sometimes to approach them and talk, but other times just to see them through the trees, knowing they were out there brought me peace. December was drawing to a close.

It was Christmas Day at the H-Q. We didn't all celebrate Christmas. Quinn is Jewish, Priya is Muslim, and Christopher and Bree are both atheist. But we still decided to do a gift exchange. It wasn't anything too fancy, just some trinkets to make the place feel more at home. We'd grown close to each other over quarantine. It only felt right. Being inside on that day, sitting around the wood-burning stove and giving each other our gifts felt right.

We were in the midst. of dinner when things went awry. The thud at the door caused me to jump. It was so out of nowhere that for the first few moments, we didn't even move, just looked around at each other in confusion. It was Thomas who got up to check. We heard him swear at the door. That got us to move.

And the front step was a stag's head. The bloody stump was dry, but its fur was stained with rusty brown, eyes milky white and vacant. We'd all seen dead animals before, but we knew there was something wrong. I looked around at the others, but they all had knowing looks on their faces, albeit annoyed ones. Chris was the first to speak. It was probably a prank.

Someone might be out there in the woods, he said. The others nodded. We should pair up and sweep the front entrance. They can't have gotten far. Everyone began getting dressed for the outside. I looked over my shoulder, longingly, at our abandoned Christmas dinner. But I didn't complain, not wanting to seem selfish. Someone could be hurt out there.

Even if they had prank us so cruelly like this, I didn't want to think I might indirectly be the cause of someone's death via frostbite. I got to walk with Quinn, luckily. He's been around here longer than most of us. Second, only to Christopher. about six years under his belt. We were walking down the trails rather than in the bush, the white beam of the flashlight making the fresh snow glimmer

as we plodded through the thick layer of powder. We made small talk, quipping about the dinner, the presents we'd gotten from our co-workers and our family members in the mail, and the deer head. It got quiet for a moment, the only sound of the snow under our feet and the wind whistling through the pines. And then Quinn turned to him.

to me. Hey, Max? He asked. Hmm? Did anyone tell you about the year walk? I shook my head, giving him a confused look and slowing my pace. He sighed quietly and slowed down with me, muttering in annoyance that no one had told me yet. Yeah, I thought so. You seem confused when the boss let us know we'd be staying over the winter. What is it? I asked. He personally, his lips, trying to think of a way to explain it. It's an old Swedish tradition that happens around this time of year. People spend New Year's night walking through the forest until sunrise. Apparently, they think, if they'd do it, they'll be given a prophecy about the coming

year from a goat spirit, or whatever. I cocked my head, slowing to a stop. Okay, what so important about it? From what I hear, it's come back into style in some circles. He chuckled dryly. Last year, some people jumped the fence into the reserve to do a year walk. They were half frozen to death when we found them. Luckily, they survived.

But, you know, they... He trailed off, as if he had more he wanted to say, but then he shook his head. Upper management doesn't want to risk it happening again, so they told us to stick around over winter. We'll all get a bonus for it, though. So that's a plus, eh? He patted me on the back, and I mustered up a weak laugh. Even though their feeling of an ease just continued to grow. The whole tradition reads as something demonic,

something my parents would have clasped their hands over my ears to keep me from hearing. It's intriguing, but I don't let the thoughts of it linger with me as Quinn changes the subject. We didn't end up finding anything. Neither did anyone else, except for Thomas and Bree. They found the deer's body in the snow, slumped against a tree stump and frozen. with footprints all around the clearing and leading off into the woods. That night I could hardly sleep. It wasn't about the deer.

It was about the year walk. And it wasn't about those footsteps. It was about what I knew I'd have to do, patrolling the woods at night in the dead of winter. I don't know why it was frightening me that much. It shouldn't have been a big deal. It would be just like any other night between. I'd taken, only in the middle of winter.

The idea of it made me feel queasy. I don't know if it was a true phobia. I know it's irrational. It's just a regular occurrence, a normal portion of the year, and yet I couldn't will myself to sleep. It was in the wee hours of the morning. I still couldn't get any rest, even though I couldn't sleep. I just laid there, in bed, staring up at the ceiling and tracing the wood grain with my eyes.

I was shocked out of my trance by the sound of crunching snow and ringing bells outside. I sat up in bed, shuffling to the edge of the bed and looking out the window. Nobody there. The wind continued to whistle in the trees and the forest was silent. Slowly getting to my feet, I wandered over to the window and peered around. The crunching sound was quieter then, peering off to my right. When I looked down, there were footprints in the snow under my window. I threw open the window and stuck my head out, looking out to where the crunching was headed.

And there was nothing there. That didn't exactly help my predicament. It only highlighted my fears and added a dark, unknown void to my paranoid, anxious thoughts. In the morning, I woke up and put on my clothes, ate cereal for breakfast and chatted with Bree and Quinn. before we all put on our snow gear and got ready for our first patrol of the day. By the time we went outside, there had been snowfall, washing away all evidence of the footprints outside my window. I tried to keep my mind off of it.

We walked on our own during the day. It's bright enough that we can see each other pretty easily, and we have walkie-talkies if anything goes wrong. I felt like I was being watched that day, but I couldn't place what I was being watched by. The day passed without incident And so did the day after that And the one after

Just three days until New Year's And my anxiety continued to mount up I asked Christopher if I could stay in And file our incident reports He let me spend one day inside Thank God But when they were out in the woods doing patrols I could hear the crunch of snow

And ringing of bells again Circling around HQ It happened again the day after when I was lagging behind to wash the dishes after everyone had left. It happened each night too, walking around and around. I was sure I was just hallucinating, all my mind was playing tricks on me. But despite myself, I couldn't shake that feeling of dread. I prayed for the first time in years that night, clasping my hands together and quaking in my bed, praying I catch a cold or break a leg.

anything for an excuse not to patrol that night. On the morning of December 31st, I woke up an hour ahead of schedule. I crawled out of bed and wandered to the bathroom in my pyjamas, splashing water on my face. My head hurt so badly. My knees buckled under me and I wrapped my arms around the edge of the toilet. I tried not to look at my vomit, eyes squeezed shut and stomach lurching as I lost last night's dinner into the bowl. My anxiety had reached this peak. Even breathing turned into gasping, wheezing, hyperventilation,

hysteric sobs escaping my choked throat. I pressed my hand over my mouth, digging my fingers in to keep anyone from hearing. The bathroom felt more like a confession booth, claustrophobic and closing enemy, judgment from the other side of the door, even though I knew nobody else was awake. I put on my clothes. I had no appetite for breakfast.

And when everyone woke up, I acted as though nothing was wrong. I kept up my chipper attitude. I picked up at my lunch. I filed more incident reports. And nighttime finally came. The snow was thick and cold. I could see all of the stars in the sky. The patrol began according to plan.

I was paired up with Bree. We talked, but I wasn't much for a conversation. I was too busy letting my fear get the best of me. my eyes darting around and my hands shaking under my mittens. I couldn't bring myself to look at Bree, fearing that she wouldn't notice the fear in my expression. After a while, the conversation petered off and we were walking in silence, sweeping our flashlights around to the trees. After a long while of silence, I cleared my throat and looked to. Bree.

Brie wasn't there. I spun around in a circle Bree wasn't there She had just been there Just a few feet behind me but I looked around again Everything looked different I'd walked this patrol path

Dozens of times over and over But nothing looked right The trees were all wrong stretching up high into the night sky There was no sound Just the crunch of footsteps and the whistle of the wind I could feel my heart rate picking up I could feel my breathing begin to quiver and rattle in my throat.

And then my flashlight whizzled out, and I started to shake. I fumbled my walkie-to-talkie off my hip and turned it to the right frequency. This is Maxwell. Asked me for backup. Is anyone there? I stammered into the receiver, voice cracking pathetically. All I got in response was a garbled static sound, no matter what I did. I repeated my message over and over until my voice had dissolved into babbling whispers,

and I fell to my knees in the snow. There was no response, just a subalative fear and loneliness that hit me like an oncoming train. I curled into a ball, hyperventilating and crying into my knees as cold crept in on me. My jacket kept me safe, but still I could feel the cold in my face. I don't know how long I stayed there, paralyzed with fear. and unable to move an inch, just praying to a God that I knew couldn't hear me to let it all be a terrible nightmare. I heard a sound then. Ahead of me, the crunching of snow.

I looked up. In the path ahead, I could see a figure walking away from me. I was up on my feet and running after it in an instant. I called out, my voice still hoarse and roar from crying, yelling for them to stop and wait. They just kept walking. Even with a slow pace, I just couldn't seem to catch up. My hope made me reckless. I didn't notice the route in front of me,

and I stumbled forwards, falling face down into the snow. When I looked up, the figure was gone. I shakily got to my knees in the snow and stared forwards, if looking long enough would make it come back. I could hear ringing behind me, but I couldn't bring myself to turn around and look. The two of them walked past me, Two women wearing traditional-looking Scandinavian dresses and white veils.

In one hand they carried a swaddled blanket drenched red in blood, and in the other, a bell ringing with each step. They left a bloody red trail in the wake, droplets of blood in the snow from there. Children. They spoke blankly, without any tone, speaking in a language I couldn't understand. I felt sick.

I felt my hands grow sweaty and my throat closed up. I followed them. I got to my feet and trudged after them, unable to cry anymore. There was a river ahead, rushing across the path and splitting it in two. I kept walking. The two women walked to the river edge and let their children fall to the ground, blankets falling open, full of nothing but bones, much. I started hearing other people walking in the woods, taking their own paths,

all converging on one point. I didn't run towards them, no matter how much I wanted to. I couldn't bring myself to change course. It was a trance. I know that now. But I didn't understand then. In the middle of the clearing, there was a monument. It wasn't supposed to be there.

Nothing was supposed to be in the woods. There should have been nothing there at all. But it was. A pillar of wood with a staghead. on top, a spike through the skull to keep it in place. At its base was the body the head it belonged to, split open to expose

its innards. Steam still rose off it. It was fresh, still warm. There were others in the clearing, all standing at the ends of their own pathways, staring up at the monument with adoration. The deer's head's mouth gaped open, tongue hanging out and eyes rolling up to show whites.

He began to speak without its lips moving In that language I still didn't understand It groaned out in joyous suffering Its blood dribbling down the pillar in beads I didn't understand But the others there did They scrambled forwards through the snow Dropping to the ground in front of the body of the deer

And pulling fistfuls of gore And bloody guts out of the animal's body With wet tearing sounds I felt sick I felt terrified I felt so hungry I sank to my knees in front of the body and reached forwards

the parts were indistinguishable from each other mashed together and disgusting tears streamed on my cheeks as I shoved pieces of raw deer flesh into my mouth metallic and chewy and textured in a way that made me want to vomit but I kept eating why was this happening to me

what was I doing there I sobbed into bloody handfuls of venison, leaning down and beginning to tear it up with my teeth, licking the blood off my lips. If there was a god to hear my screams for help, it was cruel enough to turn away. Shame and guilt and fear rolled around in my stomach, and the moon shone down to me like a spotlight at its highest point.

The world shrank around me until nothing but the body of the deer and the monument were real. I leaned back. blood drenching my face and hands in front, staring up at the deerhead as it stared back at me. It spoke again. I didn't understand. I couldn't understand. I kept eating even as I cried. Lightheadedness set in. I staggered to my feet and stumbled away from the clearing, weeping openly and staring at my bloody hands. What have I done? What's happened to me? I'm a monster.

I couldn't run, just stumbled away as much as I could, tears and mucus mingling with the blood that coated my face. I fell to the ground and sobbed into the snow. I covered my ears when I heard people screaming from the clearing behind me and curled into a ball to hide when they ran past me in their new forms, hooves leaving bloody marks in the snow. I splayed out where I laid, and even the silence that fell over the forest was deafening, ringing in my ears. I could hear everything I couldn't before.

I could feel the cold forest pumping and beating as one, screaming as one, truly living, breathing being, despite the snow cover. A being that would consume my body to support it, just as I had to the body of that deer. Oh God, I couldn't be a God. This breathing, a morvis being was God, a frantic and hungry god, a spiteful and ancient God. It was everything.

and I was part of it. Oh God. I must have passed out. When I woke up, I was laying on the trail I'd been on with Bree, and Priya was shaking me awake. She looked terrified, and I didn't understand why at first, until I noticed the blood all over me. It was...

Real, then. Priya helped me to my feet, and I leaned against her heavily on the way back to HQ. They asked me what happened. and I told them I couldn't remember anything. It was so worried for me, but they didn't seem surprised at the outcome. I think I was just like those people from the year before when they found me. I'm getting a few weeks off.

I can't return home. Ontario is on lockdown again. I spend most of my time in HQ and the others try to console me. It makes me happy to know they care. But... Nothing feels right anymore. I can't walk in the cold woods anymore.

I can hear the trees moaning hungrily when nobody else can, and I'm one of the lucky ones. When I look out the window to the tree line, I can see the deer with human eyes pacing and drooling red, jealous that I was spared when they weren't, even when I never wanted this gift. And when I sleep, I can feel the forest itself.

breathing, more alive than it's ever been. Sound check, check, check. The date is October 1st, 306 a.m. My name is Jess. You don't need to know my last name, so don't ask. You knowing my first name doesn't really matter either. It's just something to call me. Names don't know much value to me anymore.

When you are trapped in hell, what you are called doesn't matter much. All that matters is that I am now a forgotten. gotten damned soul beyond the reach of salvation or rescuing. The thing has let me move independently this time, so I hope I have time to finish this recording before my time runs out. If not, you can't rescue me anyway. I had first read about the legend of the wee beastie on Reddit. It was so popular that there was even a subreddit dedicated to it.

Despite that, no one had ever seen it. I'm not going to tell you which one because, well, you wouldn't be able to find it, even if you searched for it. I don't know if that's the way it finds you or what, but I don't want to put you on its radar. Don't listen to the people who talk about wanting to meet it. It's not worth it. Trust me. Because I only have a limited amount of time and I don't want to spend it on warning you about idiotic Reddit users. For the purpose of this story, I will only call it the cursed subreddit. According to the information on the horror subreddits though This thing, we beastie

There was never any descriptions regarding what the thing was Or even what it looked like, packed quite a punch But this was all based on rumours And badly written internet creepybusters There was yet to be a user who actually claimed to have met this thing Little did I know the horrifying reason behind that I had stumbled upon the cursed subreddit by accident Full disclosure

I am no ready to read it aficionado, far from it, but my husband had gotten me into it right before our wedding, and I was quickly hooked. I especially like browsing the different communities right before bed. It gave me something to read as my husband finished his late hours at his corporate IT job. Plus, who doesn't want to read about other people's messed up lives? If that doesn't tell something about my personality, then I don't know what to tell you. In terms of communities, I was especially interested in the reading, relationship, and story subreddit. But I sometimes subscribe to the more popular horror communities

for a little extra kick to my stories, if you know what I mean. Please don't ask me to tell you which ones. I won't be able to respond, and you'd be wasting everyone's time anyway. To be honest, I'm not sure how the curse subreddit had found me. I love the horror genre, but there was a sense of secrecy among the other horror communities that you almost needed to be invited to this particular subreddit, whatever that means. In fact, it had an almost cult-like following.

Some particular users went to horrific and often illegal ends to summon either the monster and or subreddit. They are one in the same to me. I can never forget the pictures of their activities for as long as I live. Like everything else in this story, don't ask me to tell you what I saw. It was far too disturbing. More unsettlingly, there was somewhat of a joke among the horror enthusiasts that the monster, or whatever it was,

somehow created the cursed subreddit to drag hapless and often isolated people into its snare, somewhat like a spider catching its flies. They weren't wrong. The more I think about it, it seems like that exactly how it finds its prey. Of course, before I knew any of what I know now, I thought it was all the ludicrous legend. especially seeing as no one had met the wee beastie, as it was so called. Thus, the legend remained unconfirmed. I remember the day that the curse so reddit found me, like it was yesterday.

Jake. Sorry, that's my husband. I'm horrible at introductions, and I had had yet another fight over money and my spending habits. We had had many fights over money in the years following our wedding, mainly because neither of us could agree on a budget, or, on the rare occasion that we did agree, the budget was never followed, and I always fell into my old ways. Amazon, Etsy, eBay, you name it.

I bought from all those sites like I was made from money. What can I say? I like nice stuff. While I never followed our budgets when they were made, what did follow was resentment and anger on both of our parts. It wouldn't be a lie if I said that divorce was on the horizon. After this particularly nasty fight, Jake declared that he needed to go to the office, despite it being 2.30 a.m. I wasn't stupid.

What he meant was that he needed to go to the bar and drink until he wanted to be picked up or passed out and the bar called me. The nerve to say that I spent too much money on clothes and stuff, and he can just drop 75 on drinks still makes me angry to this day. But whatever, it doesn't matter anymore. At the time, I was too upset to care. As I laid in bed, crying, I'm too angry to get up and turn off the dim yellowing light that our cheap studio apartment was filled with. I instinctively opened my Reddit app. The clock on my phone read 306am.

I typed in relationships and began to browse. Post after post was filled with stories similar to mine. Stories of people who should have never gotten married, who should have stayed friends instead of becoming lovers, or should have never met in the first place. The list of dysfunction went on and on. I'm not sure what the purpose of my scrolling was. I can't remember now.

Maybe I was seeking camaraderie, hope, a sense that things would get better. Whatever it was no longer matters. What matters was that on the recommended subreddit bar was a community I had never seen before with a caption that read for lovers of horror movies and scary stories. Thinking back on it,

The funny thing about it all was that the curse subreddit just showed up on the recommended list. Nothing of the sort ever showed up previously when I'd searched the recommended searches made by previous redditors. Maybe that was how it found me. I will never know. Here's where I made the biggest mistake of my life. You know when you know something is a bad idea, but you do it anyway. And that feeling of sick and disgusting dread just boils under the surface of your skin, and do you know that you made an awful mistake?

I felt that as my finger pressed a link to the cursed subreddit. I wish I'd listened to that feeling. My gosh, I wish I'd listened. The subreddit had a cheesy, haunted house on a hill at midnight with bats and her graveyard cartoon for the background. I was about to click out when I noticed there was a post asking about where the stories were and why this person couldn't see anything but this subreddit on the rap.

Man, even talking about this, makes me so angry that I didn't just ignore the curse subreddit and walk away. There were so many red flags about what awaited me. As I scrawled, it was like my eyes were glued to the screen. Post after post were about the monster called Wee Beastie. One near the bottom read, Anyone else consumed by this thing? I just want to see We Beastie.

What was bizarre is that it was posted by the same account over 15 times, with the grammar becoming increasingly worse and more illegible with the top post screeching For the love of God, please, please don't take me wee-beasty Please just end the suffering It was like watching someone go insane Stranger still was a lack of comments or votes Under any of the posts

At this point my feeling of dread increased But so did my curiosity Stupid me I looked for an information or moderator post anything to tell me about this community. That's when I saw it. The number of members. 665.

And every single one was active. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Reddit, there is a space at the top that shows the number of members versus the number of active members. Even on a busy subreddit, you can expect that at any one time there will be no more than a quarter of the members active. Reddit is an international community

and it would be reasonable to assume that not every member would be on at the same time strange I thought to myself but what really creaked to me out was that there wasn't even a join button my heart dropped I remember reading months before that the cursed subreddit automatically made you remember

when you visited but at the time I'd brush it off as an urban legend or another basement neck beard making up things to scare people Here's where things really get weird, as if they weren't weird enough already. Posts with gibberish began just popping up, followed by loud notifications, one after the other. The notifications kept getting louder and louder.

Despite that, my phone is religiously always left and silent. Scarier still was that it was like the noises were coming from inside my head. Bing, ding, ding! It was like a metal hammer banging against the inside of my skull. I felt like something or someone was trapped inside. The pain was horrifying. I tried to scream, but suddenly found that I couldn't move, speak or even breathe. It was just me and the noise as I silently suffocated with no escape from this personal hell.

Words can't describe the torture and claustrophobia of suddenly losing all movement and being trapped literally in your own head. I felt like a statue With a notification sound ringing No banging in my skull I was frozen in place And I couldn't even take a breath

My lungs were burning While my drying eyes stayed fixed On the phone screen All I could do was watch the post appear, each one more frantic Than the last Help, help help, please stop, help Once screamed from my screen

I felt tears rolled down my cheeks But I couldn't blink or walk wipe them away. I'm ashamed to say this, but I begged whatever was holding me captive to let me breathe, or at the least let me pass out or even die. The limbo was awful.

I don't think words can portray the torture experienced. You know that scene in Clockwork Orange, where the guy is in his seat and his eyelids are forced open and he's restrained? It was like that, but there was no one to put eye drops into my eyes.

An eye could not breathe. Finally, after what seemed like hours, whatever was holding me in place, release me. I fell off the bed and onto the floor, gulping for air to fill my empty lungs. The horrifying notification sound was suddenly gone, replaced by a pounded migraine.

I grabbed at the carpet, my face sweating as I coughed and cried, my eyes burning. Jess? I took a few more gulping breaths and looked up. Jake was kneeling in front of me He must have gotten back home when I was still frozen I crawled like a child into his lap sobbing

Please Please don't let go I begged I'll make it right I'll never spend another scent Just please don't leave Oh Jess He sighed

Leaning into his chest I didn't see his face But I knew he was smiling condescendingly Like he always did when he was correcting me. You learned about We Beastie, didn't you, Sweet Art? You didn't listen to your gut feeling, and now We Beastie knows all about you.

I froze, panic setting in. What did you say? I whispered. Jake laughed. How very like you, my love. He hits the last word. To not listen to a word I say. I stared at his chest.

suddenly very aware of my surroundings. He was skinnier, much skinnier than I remembered, and his t-shirt felt very thick for the type of cotton it was. It was hanging off him like it was two sizes too big. My heart was pounding in my ears. Jake was an ass. There was no denying that. But he never acted or felt like this before.

You're... You're... You're scaring me. My voice was rough from the lack of air and from crying. I always listen. Jake laughed. No, cackled at my cry. Why, my love.

He said it again, that inhuman hiss. Of course you never listen to your darling, Jake. The husband that has taken on so much debt because of your irresponsibility and childishness, the one that was driven to drink to make up for your selfishness. How pathetic, what a useless wife you are. The burden I have to shoulder because of you. My cheeks flushed, and I was suddenly dragged into a standing position. Jake, or whatever is in Jake's body,

had picked me off roughly from under the armpit and made me stand. I felt something under his skin slip, like when your hands move in gloves too big. I coughed again and thought to get away from the pain. I looked at his face. It wasn't Jake, not even close. Sure, it looked like him. It had his voice and it had his clothes.

But it was not Jake. His strikingly handsome face stared at me with a wolfish grin, and his teeth seemed to be a bit too long, too animalistic. The lips also hung at an awkward angle, like they weren't fully attached to his face, like there was something smiling underneath the skin. It was like an elaborate mask. I stared at the monster, if that's what it was, trying not to show fear.

Jake threw back his head and laughed a screeching laugh. Then he looked me right in the eyes. That's when I saw it. It definitely wasn't Jake. It was something wearing Jake's skin. It was like the skin had been glued carefully to parts of the thing's face and body. There were wrinkles in the arms and hands and even the chest where the skin. skin fit too loosely, like gloves and shirts that were too big.

Worst of all, the blue eyes that I'd always loved weren't blue anymore. They were black and bloody coloured where the white should be. No, this thing was not, Jake. I'm not even sure to this day that it is human at all. I couldn't take it anymore. I screamed. I screamed louder than I'd ever screamed before. I struggled to get out of the thing's grip.

I thrashed back and forth, but the monster's grip was relentless. You know, the thing moved Jake's mouth closer to my ear. There is one way to get rid of me, but you missed that opportunity when you entered my domain. The hands beneath Jake's skin became so tight that I thought my shoulder would dislocate. That's when I saw it. My cell phone turned on and opened the Reddit app to the cursor Reddit and began a new post. The thing glanced at it. and laughed.

What should we tell our fans? Oh, you know what? I have an idea. Let's ask. The keyboard appeared on the screen. Is anyone else consumed with the idea of We Beastie? The phone began typing those exact words. The thing wherein Jake Skin screamed.

Send it. In a howling, inhuman shriek. The post appeared at the top of the subreddit page. I stopped struggling for only a moment. I knew those words. They were the same ones on the cursed subreddit before this nightmare began. Somehow, other details were becoming more clear. Panic set in full when I realized what was going on,

and the trap I'd unleashed to myself when I clicked into that subreddit. I started sobbing, full ugly sobbing. Please, please, leave me alone. Just go away. Why won't you leave me alone? As I screamed, a new post appeared on the subreddit. Every time I took a breath and screamed in terror, a new post has created, over and over again. I kicked and fought to no avail. It was like kicking a statue.

Whatever the thing was, was not moving even an inch. That's when I realized that I was being carried by my armpits to a new location. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see this Jake, but not Jake conglomeration. I heard the monster gleefully opened the closet door with me and turn. With the wee beast Yuko, it laughed in a sing-song voice. That's another thing

I should mention. The thing didn't walk. No, walking would be too human, too normal. Instead, it hopped from one foot to another like some kind of demonic puppet attached the strings and one leg was broken.

I continued screaming and fighting as we enter the closet. Instead of clothes and boxes though, It was a black chasm, like a portal to a hellish dimension. The monster then said something that I would never forget, no matter how many times it forces me to try and forget. It would be a pleasure to see you again. Yes.

It hissed the last S sound of my name. I just love when I get to meet my new fans. In all of the panic and fear, my mind began processing what the thing wearing Jake's skin had said. "'Yes,' it had whispered. "'It should have been impossible. "'I never told it my name, "'and my Reddit username was nowhere near my real one.

"'There weren't any objects in our apartment "'with mine or Jake's name on them. "'That's when a horrifying thought struck me. "'When it killed Jake, "'it must have assumed his memories, "'which meant that it knew everything about me. "'It knew every fear, every thought, "'and finally, and everything else.

else that I ever told my now-dead husband. My thoughts became fuzzy, and I knew one thing. I had to get away. My thoughts raced back into the panic state. I had to get away. I had to get away. I had to get away. I had to get away. As if reading my thoughts, the wee beastie hauled me into the void

that had once be my closet. Oh, my fly! It sang, You flew too close to the poor spider's whip and got caught. and now the web is where you'll stay. With that, it flung us both into the black chasm. I was made shriek when everything went black and soundless. What felt like only a second later,

I opened my eyes to find that I was laying in my bed, the monster gone, and my armpits aching horribly. I felt tears in my face from what had just happened. Horrified, I realized that time had started over, and I was exactly where I was after Jake and I was. fight. My stomach churning, I glanced down at my hand and found that my phone was open to relationships.

The time was set exactly at 306am. I saw the curse sub-readit and the recommended tab. Feeling the bile rise in my throat, my hand moved against my well, and whatever control my motions, pressed on it. In the distance, or perhaps in my skull, I heard a horrible notification sound. I might have been imagining things But I thought for a second That I heard something inhuman

Hiss in a high-pitched voice I'm almost there my love Your Jake is almost home At the top of the cursor read it I noticed with horror Let it now had 666 members All of whom were active A strangled sob gurgled from my throat

I knew what awaited me Tears stung the corner of my eyes It was only a matter of time until the monster came from me Once again, over and over I was trapped repeating this hell again and again I can't tell you how many times I've experienced this Each time the monster comes for me Jake's skin rots and slows off more and more

And the monster's own grey worm-like skin becomes more visible underneath it Perhaps I was staying this cycle forever Soon I will forget my own name, Jake's name and anything that ties me to my own humanity. All I will remember is that the wee beastie is coming. If you're listening to this, walk away. If you see that curse or Reddit, you'll know it when you see it.

Whatever you do, don't click on it. No matter how much you feel like you need to. Just walk away. Do whatever you can to avoid the wee beastie. I didn't take my story as a lesson. Avoid it. Oh God, I heard that hissing voice again. He's here again.

May God, if there is a God out there, may he have mercy on my soul.