Creepy - The Cell Phone Game

Episode Date: January 15, 2018

The internet is filled with games and challenges that kids play, often with disastrous results. How far would you go to have control over life and death? What would you do if you couldn't turn it off?***Please consider supporting the podcast at Patreon.com/Creepypod or creepypod.com/support***Guest narration by Nichole Goodnight and Owen McCuen ***Produced by Steve Blizin***Title music by Alex Aldea***Intro/Outro Narration by Joe Stofko Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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With guest narration by Nicole Goodnight and Owen McCune. Howdy? You can call me Jack. It's not my real name, but that's what I'll go by for now. I reckon the time to tell you my stories come. Believe it or don't. but here it is. I suggest you take away the lessons it teaches, even if you dismiss it as bullshit

like 98% of the other stories on the internet. But there's more truth in this story than any one of you could know. Now, I've been out of high school for three years, but that's when this particular event takes place, so I'm going to have to wind my clock back a little to tell you the story. Originally, for my first two and a half years of high school, I attended to school in the deep southern part of America, close to the Gulf.

We'd all kinds of ghost stories growing up, and if there was one lesson our super conservative parents taught us, it was this. Don't go fooling around in things you don't understand. Now, that was really unpopular in my high school in the South. My first two years of high school were a real pain because I was a big dork and everyone made fun of me. I was a loner. All I really did in class was play my game bowl. all day before rushing home to play an MMO I was addicted to. All of that changed during my junior year,

when my mother's job moved to South West. I started to attend a little Catholic high school with no more than around 250 students. It was at this time that I finally started to fit in and make friends. Knowing out here knew how much of a dork I was, so I opted to hide my power level, as they tend to say on 4chan, and try to make friends for once in my life.

Who knows? Maybe I could even get a cute girlfriend if I was careful. I stared to meet people at the school. At a school that small you end up knowing everyone in your class. My first day I made a new friend named Sam, and at lunch I opted to sit with him and his friends. He told me all about the other kids in the school, who was most popular, who the jocks were, so on, so forth.

He introduced me to his friends too, Jim, big jovial fellow tip the scales at 300 pounds Vogelman Our table's resident computer nerd and hacker And Thomas musician who played the electric guitar I also met Stephanie

The school's resident Spunky Girl Some of the guys said she could be a bitch But she seemed cool enough She was into gaming and never messed with any of us She even seemed to think how was funny so maybe that's why she started to call me at home after school some days. Sam told me all kinds of stories about her. Like how she used to make snacks for guys at school,

but then sprinkle vaguely fagra all over them or pour laxative into them so anyone who ate it would suffer the brunt of her painful and arguably cruel joke. I just chuckled to myself and politely refused whenever she offered me anything. Then there was Rottenbocker. His real name was Jason but everyone always called him Rottenbock or the Crout because he was a hardcore Nazi

he was an outcast and a loner no one wanted to be associated with him every day he'd wear a red swastika arm band to school just beneath his jacket where the teachers couldn't see but whenever he'd get hot and slip it off or whenever he was changing in the locker room he'd be wearing the Nazi armband

Furthermore, on Halloween and on school costume event days when he knew he could get away with it, Rottenbacher always wore an entire replica of an SS uniform like the Gestapo wear, black hat and long boots. He was a mean, angsty, son of a bitch. Whenever anyone told the teacher about him or asked him about the Nazi stuff, he'd show racial or ethnic slurs at him, cuss him out and yell Heil Hitler. Furthermore, one particular thing that caught my eye was that I couldn't help but notice that Rottenbacher always walked with a slight limp, like he was in pain.

Sam told me that somebody once saw him tightening a Barb Silas in the locker room like the ones Catholic priests were to punish themselves for their sins. It was a Catholic school, so I, like most people, just assumed at the time that maybe you just wore the Silas because he was a devout Christian. It was kind of strange for a hardcore Hitler. lover like Rottenbacher, but it was high school and none of us preferred to think too much about stuff like that. After he got done introducing me to everyone, Sam told me some of the school's old stories,

including an urban legend that's circulated about Kaylee, a girl that died mysteriously after playing some sort of cell phone game. Sure enough, he could point out the girl in the yearbook to me and everyone recalled that the police had declared her missing under mysterious circumstances. She was presumed dead almost immediately thereafter. If you asked anyone exactly what happened, no one could tell you a damn thing. They always just said it was because she played the cell phone game. Sam, Stephanie, the cute, stevious one.

Rottenbacher, the self-torturing Nazi, the cell phone game. The police's investigation of a teen's disappearance, all these people and events were about to come together to drink me into the same. something in which I wanted no part. It wouldn't even be until over two years later that I finally understood how and why everything went down just the way it did. Anyway, the last half of junior year came and went, and the long summer passed us all by in what seemed like a heartbeat.

It was finally time to begin our last year of high school. Everyone was back for the new year, pumped to start the laziest and most fun year of our high school lives. Even Rottenbacher, still limping around the school in that Barb Salis, still spouting his Nazi garbage every time someone decided to mess with him. The years started out eerily, quiet. Word was that two more cell phone game-related disappearances that happened over the summer to one boy and one girl from another high school,

and the police were investigating a possible serial killer. According to the paper, the only common length of police had found was that every person who disappeared had received a text message that read, Welcome to the game. None of the text messages had been sent from the same cell phone, so this evidence been dismissed as circumstantial. For me, things weren't half bad.

It was this year when I finally started to open up more as a person. I've made a good circle of friends who I trusted, and I felt more calm about being myself at this point. gradually I started to fit in more and more and pretty soon I was pretty popular in certain circles Stephanie liked to hang around with me more and more because of how funny she thought my jokes were before long one day which I still remember is one of the happiest of my life she came to me in the middle of campus after school and looked up at me with those beautiful eyes that long black hair and a smile to die for

she asked me right then. Jack, will you go out with me? I laughed, ran, jumped for joy. Of course I will, said, danced around with her in front of everyone. I finally had a girlfriend. I still remember that as one of the happiest days of my entire life, if not the happiest. We went on dates, we hung out after school. She even started eating lunch with Sam, Jim Vogelman, and I.

every day. Maybe I wouldn't have been so happy had I known what was going to happen next. It was one day at lunch when she was sitting with us when she mentioned that while sleeping over with her friends one night, they'd stayed up late with some girls from another high school talking about the cell phone game. She said that these girls knew all about the rules of the game, and they had explained it all to her in great detail. Supposedly, You can join the game at any time by sending a text message at midnight to the right phone number. The text message was supposed to say, I wish for the power to curse.

If you did it right, you get a message in return that said, Welcome to the game. And supposedly, this was the reason they had given for why the police found that message on the phones of everyone that had disappeared. Stephanie went on to talk about the game. we held us in attentively to what she was saying. She told us that once someone was in the game, they were in danger. Within two weeks, they had to complete one of a number of different tasks, or else they'd be dragged away in the night.

I stopped her right there. Draged away? By what? To where? She got silent for a moment. I don't know. She whispered before continuing her story. She said that in order to protect oneself from being dragged away you could do one or two things.

First was to find a special protective item. The item could be anything. You never knew what it was going to be, but it seemed that whatever the item was, it would make the bear suffer in some way. This was considered a small price to pay in return for protection as long as you wore the item. The second way was to bring someone else into the game. This could be done by sending the text message,

welcome to the game to someone else's phone. If someone received the text message from someone else who was in the game, that meant that this person was now in the game too, and subject to all the same rules and consequences of the game. If the person didn't find a protective item themselves or bring another person into the game, then they too would be dragged away. The catch-about-the-second was this,

while the protective item, if phoned, could protect you indefinitely so long as you kept it with you, bringing someone else into the game would only buy you a temporary grace period. The first time you brought someone into the game, you'd get a two-week extension. Then only one week. Eventually, the grace period would get shorter and shorter until you barely bought yourself any time at all by bringing someone else into the game. By that time, you needed to have found your protection item,

even though I've always been something of an X-file. I didn't like hearing her talk about this stuff, so I told her it was a bunch of nonsense. You really think so? She asked. Well, if it's true, it would explain what the police found. And imagine how cool that would be to be able to curse anyone who messed with you by bringing them into the game. You could get rid of anyone and no one would ever know. There's an edge in her voice had never heard before from Stephanie.

She almost sounded intoxicated at the thought of it. Truth be told, it scared me a little. Don't go talking like that, I told her. Stuff like that's beyond people like you and me. We shouldn't be messing with stuff like that. What if you got yourself involved in it and all turned out to be true? What would I do if something happened to you? Promise me you won't go messing around in that stuff.

She gave me a funny look. I never thought you would be the kind of person to be scared. scared of silly things like this. Well, I don't think it's right to mess around and stuff you don't understand, you know? I gave her a concerned look. Now, promise me, Steph, promise you won't go try it. She sighed in annoyance. Fine, fine.

I won't play the scary cell phone game. Are you happy now? I told her I was, but truth be told, I was scared. I didn't believe her. And all the time I'd known her, I'd never seen her betray anyone or something. sleep around or anything, but she'd always been a trickster and a liar, and she'd lie to anyone about anything if got her head without hurting anyone else. But to be honest, I thought it was kind of cute, just accepted it as one of her quirks. But this time it was serious. So a few days later,

when she came back and told us she joined the cell phone game, I was pissed. What are you thinking, Stephanie? You promise me you wouldn't do that. Yeah, yeah, I know. But it's not any big deal. I've already got it all planned out. Besides, if it's true and it works, it's too good of an opportunity to pass up. She held up her cell phone.

Look! She said giddily. A text message was open on the screen which read. Welcome to the game. Kind of freaky, huh? I got it just after I sent the text at midnight, just like the girl said. My shot dropped.

I was speechless and scared stiff. This game couldn't be for real, could it? Stephanie, if this is real, then you're in danger now. You've only got two weeks to find a protective item. I know. That's why I sent the text to Rebecca. I'm going to find out if it's true or not. I hit the roof.

You did what? But Stephanie, if this is real, then that makes you as good as a murderer. You cursed Rebecca. And now she could die because of you. Relax, Jack. I don't actually believe any of this stuff. But even if I did, Rebecca's always been a big-time bitch. It's not like she doesn't have it coming anyways.

She giggled that same mischievous giggle of hers that I'd always loved. But this time, I wasn't loving any part of it. A couple of weeks passed and nothing happened. But then one day, Rebecca didn't show up at school. At lunchtime, Stephanie was sitting around us as usual when the assistant principal came to talk to us all with a megaphone. Have your attention, please. Everyone got silent. The police have reported that one of your fellow students, Rebecca, has gone missing.

Stephanie's golden skin turned white. She froze. Her parents are very worried about her. If any of you know anything about this, please come and talk to me after school. That is all. Stephanie, I whispered. I was very afraid for her. I was very afraid for what she might do.

She looked at me and said, Don't say anything. Just don't. She got up and bolted from the lunchroom. I chased after her. Stephanie. Stephanie, what are you doing? She kept jogging away from me.

Her cell phone out. Don't try to stop me, Jack. If I'm going to survive, I'm going to need more time. I can get another week if I curse someone else, and that'll give me three weeks to find it. Stephanie, listen to yourself. Who are you going to curse? You kill someone else for a little extra time?

Look what's happened to you? She was starting to cry. I know, damn it. But I know who I'm going to curse. No one's going to miss them. I promise. Stephanie, that's not right. You can't do it.

No one deserves this. Let me help you. We can find a protective object for you together. She turned and showed me her cell phone. Her text outbox had a message which read, Welcome to the game. She had sent it to Rottenbocker. I started to weep.

I grabbed onto her as tightly as I could. Stephanie, I love you. I'm so sorry. This isn't right. None of this is right. She held on to me and began to cry deeply as well. We held each other for nearly an hour like that. I still remember it like it was yesterday.

That next day before we went home, we both resolved. We would start looking for a protective item the next day. The next day, I was walking with Stephanie along the track after school when Rottenbacher approached us with his cell phone. He was furious. He held it up to her face. Is this your idea of a joke, you stupid bitch? Truth be told, I felt Rottenbacher had the right to be a little angry.

Sure, he was a Nazi pervert freak, but with all the whispers of murder going around. I could imagine anyone being angry for getting a text like that. But even so, I wasn't about to let anyone talk to my girl that way. Hey, buddy, watch your mouth. That's no way to talk to a lady. Lady! This fucking slut is not a lady.

She's just a bitch. And she's trying to kill me. I bet you kill that other girl too, didn't you? Rebecca? Yeah, she's missing because of you, isn't she? Rottenbocker shouted. Stephanie began to cry again. I pulled my arm back and punched as hard as I could at Rottenbocker's face.

He stumbled backwards a few step and grabbed at his lip. from which trickled a little stream of blood, but he kept his composure. I halfway expected him to swing back at me, but he just stood there. After a moment he spoke. You just don't get it, do you, Stephanie? I'm already in the game.

I always have been. I know the fucking score. But unlike you, I never cursed anyone else. Bullshit, I said. If all that's true, then how are you still... Suddenly, I remembered the Salis Rottenbacher wore around his leg that caused him to limp and agony. And what Stephanie had told me at lunch, whenever a new protective item was discovered, whatever it was, it would cause its bearer to suffer.

Your protective item? You have one. Stephanie's eyes lit up. It was clear that she'd realize the same thing that I had. Prattenbacher smirked. That's right. So I just figured your girlfriend better know that she didn't get any additional time for trying to curse me. I've already been there and done that.

Stephanie looked up at him with fear in her eyes. Days passed and try as we might. Stephanie and I couldn't find anything that could qualify as a protective item. We were approaching the two-week deadline and she was looking more and more scared by the day. Her hair was a mess. usually bubbly personality was glum and distraught. She stared off into space during classes and prayed constantly. After the two-week deadline passed, we were both terrified.

She came to me at school and said, Jack, I want you to sleep with me tonight. Stay with me all night. Don't let it get me. I couldn't refuse. I showed up at her house late that night and came in through a window. We slept together.

It was bittersweet. She went to sleep holding me, but I lay awake most of the night watching and waiting until I finally fell asleep around 4.30 in the morning from sheer exhaustion. The next day when I woke up, all I could think was... Stephanie! I looked around frantically. She wasn't in bed next to me.

Stephanie! I said louder as I. I climbed out of bed and began search for her. I walked into the kitchen. Don't be so loud. The voice said. It was Stephanie's. I turned around to see her at a round table in the kitchen.

She was smiling and seemed as giddy as ever. I breathed the sigh relief. My parents have already gone to work, but I don't want the neighbors to get suspicious and say something. I wept with relief. It was over. She was safe. Nothing had come for her.

I ran across the kitchen floor and hugged her and kissed her all over. Everything was perfect for two weeks. Then I came to school one day and nine of our classmates had disappeared, including Sam. Everyone was in an uproar. No one knew what had happened to them or where they'd gone. No one except for me. and the person who'd done it.

Stephanie. If the amount of time extended was halved each time you brought someone into the game, then nine people would have brought her just over two weeks, which meant that her time would be running out again tonight. I confronted her about it after school. Stephanie, the police are getting suspicious. You can't do this anymore, and I can't watch you do this anymore. It's wrong.

It's evil. She looked at me silently. I still remember the look in her eyes that day. At this point, it had become clear to me that the girl I had known and loved was long gone. And all the remained was a soulless, wicked shell, which clung to life and feared death more than anything. But even so, I still loved her more than anything. She was my first and only girlfriend, and I couldn't let her go. I couldn't let anything happen to her.

It's okay. I won't do it anymore. I've accepted what I need to do, and I'm going to do it. No one else is going to die because of me. She said, Stephanie, are you sure? Maybe we can still find a protective item for you if we look now. She looked down sadly. There's no use running from it now.

I just want to spend the night with you tonight, okay? one more night together that's all I want I was heartbroken everything was too melancholic too melodramatic I was so sad at hearing her words at the thought of her being taken away I threw up I vomited and wretched over and over again into nearby trash can trying to fight back in endless stream of tears that night she slept with me again sick weak and tired, I passed out from pure exhaustion at 3 a.m. Less than an hour later, though, I awoke with a start. Stephanie was gone.

I sat up and looked around in terror, then found a note. Jack, I'm sorry for lying to you again, but I'm not ready to die yet. She'll went down my spine. I continued to read. I figured out what I need to do. Don't worry. As I promised, no one else is going to die, because of me.

What could she be thinking? I looked around my room. Suddenly, I noticed that the 45-caliber pistol my father had bought me from my 18th birthday I was missing from my room. And everything made perfect sense.

That's why she'd wanted to spend the night with me tonight. She wanted my gun. She was planning to go after Rottenbacher and take his protective item. As fast as I could, I threw on some clothes and bolted from my truck. I sped off towards Rottenbacher's apartment. When I got there, the lock had been shot off, and there were voices inside. I pushed the door open.

What's going on here? I demanded. I looked around. Stephanie was holding Rottenbacher at gunpoint with my 45. The apartment walls were covered with the apartment walls. pictures of Adolf Hitler and swastika banners. There were whips and chains scattered around the bedroom floor. Rotenbarker was stomping around in long-sleeved pajamas and cursing at her in his typical neo-Nazi form,

screaming at her about home invasion and calling the police and this and that. He was even wearing that stupid Nazi armband. It was obvious this guy was a lunatic fanatic. Stephanie screamed at him. Take my shit. Shut the fuck up. She fired around at the wall behind him and winced. I remember my ears ringing from the loudness of the gunshot and the sharp pain in my ears.

But I was too tense to worry about it at the moment. Now give me that barbed torture thing you're always wearing, or I'll kill you right now. Her voice was all malice. Rottenbacher stood in place for a moment, so he began to remove his pajama leggings. You're making a big mistake, he said. You should just accept the way things are

and die with dignity. You're not going to get away with this. He removed the salis from his leg, from which trickled a small amount of blood and handed it to her. Immediately she slipped it onto her own leg with one hand, fumbling with my pistol as she tightened it until it hurt. and her own leg began to bleed a little. Let's go, Jack.

She whispered and turned to leave. I started to walk out with her. From the apartment, I heard Rottenbocker shouting. He's going to come for you, and he's going to drag you off the hell for what you've done. You're going to pay for all those kids. I could see that she was sobbing a little as we walked away. That was sick. I was disgusted with everything.

I was disgusted with Stephanie for being so cruel and selfish and I was disgusted for myself for seeing all this and seeing the signs and not doing anything to stop. But at least now it would be over. As we walked back to my truck, I set a small prayer for Rottenbacher

and the hopes that he could find a new protective item within two weeks. He may have been a racist bastard, but in a way, He was still better than Stephanie if what he said about never cursing anyone else was true and he didn't deserve to die just for that. I drove Stephanie home. She was exhausted.

I would have given her a kiss on the cheek but I was too sick and just wanted the whole ordeal to be over. I whispered to her. Good night, Jack. I love you. She whispered back and climbed out of my truck and went back to her house. I started to drive home,

exhausted from the day's events. Suddenly my cell phone began to vibrate. I picked it up. It was a call from Stephanie, I answered. Hello? The first thing I heard was a shriek, followed by what sounded like the noise of pounding in her door. What?

Hold on, Steph. I pulled a U-turn in my truck and sped off back towards her home. Stephanie was becoming more friends. Suddenly, on the other end of the line, I heard the sound of her door being bashed in, followed by another shriek. Stephanie screaming at the top of her lungs, a hideous, blood-curdling scream. I still remember every moment of it perfectly. And I remember her screams word for word.

One surged through my heart, and I floored the accelerator. She screamed again, and I heard what sounded like the phone hitting the floor, and Stephanie screams getting further and further away. And then? Dead air. Stephanie? Stephanie! Answer me, damn it!

No response I hung up and called the police. When I arrived at Stephanie's house, the front door had been smashed in. I parked my car and I jumped out, carrying a 45-kilber pistol with me. I ran inside searching the halls. Everything was in slow motion. Then I came to Stephanie's bedroom. I turned down the light and checked all the corners with my pistol leading the way. At length, I lowered my gun as something caught my eye in the center of the room.

Stephanie's cell phone lay on the floor next to her bed, in the carpet. It was a very small patch of blood. It wasn't more than a few drops, but the most chilling sight of all. Was that from the edge of her bed to the door of her room which led out into the hall? It was a trail of claw marks. that she left as something or someone had dragged her to her doom. I couldn't take it anymore. I turned and left the room.

On the way out, I couldn't help but notice that she had torn out most of her fingernails clawing at the carpet, and that they lay scattered near the trails her fingers had left. I went out into the street and threw up again. I could hear the sirens coming in the distance. Days passed, in weeks and months. The police did investigations. They questioned me time and time again, and every time my stories were all the same. I told them the truth as I knew it.

As unbelievable as it was, I don't think they believed me. But all the evidence supported my story and there was nothing to implicate me in any of the crimes, so at length, they finally let me go. Things gradually went back to normal. The class eventually recovered from the losses of so many of our classmates. And over time, my mind kind of accepted what had happened until it seemed like a distant dream. I graduated, moved on to college. But there was one thing that still bothered me through it all.

And that was Rottenbacher. He'd been exactly right. Even though Stephanie had taken his Salis, he'd never vanished in the way that she and the others did. But there is one thing that I do know. And that is to this very day. If you ever see Rottenbocker, he's still always wearing that red Nazi swastika armband. For more information, including pictures and videos of the stories told on this podcast,

or to suggest stories for future episodes, please visit us. At Creepypod on Twitter, Instagram, email. All stories told on this podcast can be found at creepypastorwiki. and are protected by a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved unless otherwise stated.