Once again you find yourself sitting in front of the campfire with friends.
You told yourself that after the sleepless nights from your last encounter with urban legends,
you would be sure to steer clear of any more scary stories. Everything is going according to plan,
you’ve been roasting marshmallows and eating s’mores all night long without a scary story
in sight. Then suddenly the person next to you does the unthinkable. “Let’s tell some
more urban legends!” they exclaim. You try to interject, but another friend breaks in,
“And let’s make them even scarier than last time! I’ll start.”
“Last time we talked about Bloody Mary,” says your friend. “But have you all heard of the Candyman?”
The Candyman legend goes back all the way to the 1800’s. A black man was haneously killed for
impregnating his white lover. Years later a group of kids was playing around an abandoned building.
It was run down, with graffiti all over the walls, and decaying garbage in the hallways. The kids
made their way into one of the apartments; all the windows had been covered with newspaper so
it was almost completely dark. The kids went into the bathroom and looked at the mirror.
“Bet you won’t say his name five times,” says one of the children. “Don’t do it,”
says another. But the third child looks directly into the mirror and says,
“Candyman, Candyman, Candyman, Candyman, Candyman…” On the fifth saying of the name,
the undead corpse of the black man who was murdered in the 1800’s comes crashing out
of the mirror. He has a hook for a hand and bees swarming around him. The kids all run,
but the one who said his name is snatched by the hook and murdered by the Candyman.
Oh man, you think. Now I won’t be able to look into a mirror for a while. “That was pretty good,”
one of your friends says. “But listen to how terrifying this urban legend is.”
This is the legend of the Bunny Man. His name might sound cute at first, but the legend is
anything but. There once was an escaped mental patient who roamed the woods. He broke out of
an asylum, but was never caught by the police. All the authorities could turn up were the corpses of
brutally murdered bunny rabbits. They knew it must be the escaped patient, but he kept eluding them.
He was given the name “Bunny Man” for his affinity for killing the furry creatures in terrible ways.
Eventually the Bunny Man started getting even more gruesome. People
would walk through the forest on nature hikes and come across an old bridge.
Hanging from the bridge were the mutilated bodies of bunnies. A group of kids was curious,
and wanted to see the bunnies that were strung up under the bridge;
so late one night they snuck out into the woods. They came across the bridge, and sure enough,
there were bunnies hanging under it. However, when they looked on top of the bridge they saw
a man in a white suit, wearing bunny ears on top of his head. The children shrieked in terror.
The next night a search party was sent out to try and locate the children who
had never returned home. The party came to the bridge where the bunnies were normally hanging,
except this time it wasn’t just rabbits…
“That’s awful!” you cry. “We’re in the woods, and we definitely crossed under some bridges to
get here.” Your friends laugh because they think you’re joking, but you’re not. “I’ve
got a good one!” declares another member of your group. “This one’s called The Beijing
Ghost Bus. After you hear it, you probably won’t want to ride public transportation for a while.”
It is late one dark and stormy night. A bus driver is making his rounds.
Around midnight the bus driver spots three men flagging him down. He is hesitant to pick them
up because they are not at a bus stop, but he figures that since the weather is so terrible,
he’ll give them a break. The three men enter the bus without a word and head to the back. The bus
driver notices they are dressed in clothing that looks like it’s from a hundred years ago.
The men are very pale, but the bus driver just assumes the men are actors from some show.
The other passengers on the bus slowly disembark at the next few stops until
only a handful of people remain. The three oddly dressed men are standing in the back of the bus.
Someone pulls the cord to signal they will be getting off at the next station.
The driver pulls up, and the bus hisses to a stop. The man who pulled the cord hurries
off the bus. Once on the sidewalk he turns around with a frightened look on his face.
“Those men in the back of the bus are floating above the floor,” he says.
The bus driver gives him an odd look and closes the door in the crazy man’s face.
The bus drives off with only the driver and three floating passengers in it.
That was the last time anyone ever saw the bus or the bus driver.
“Ghosts on a bus!” you shout. What will they think of next, serpents on a jet?
Everyone laughs and you shake your head. “I think that’s enough scary
stories for tonight,” you say. But one of your friends stands up. “Wait! I am about
to tell you the most eerie urban legend of all… and it involves a vintage video game.”
Back in the 80’s people would flock to arcades to get their fill of coin operated video games.
One game in particular was addictive, but had an ominous side to it. The game was called
Polybius. Whenever someone would drop a coin into the game, and begin playing, they would
feel disoriented. But this feeling eventually passed, and the person would continue on.
They would become addicted; always thinking about Polybius, always wanting to go another round on
the video game. Sometimes men in all black suits would come in and open up the Polybius cabinet,
as if they were extracting some kind of information from it. Then they would close
the cabinet up and let the line of eager players back at the game. Then something
even more strange began to happen. The people who played the game started to get amnesia.
They couldn’t remember who they were, or where they were from, only that they wanted to play
Polybius. This odd behavior would culminate in the unexplained death of the player.
When this happened the Polybius video game would disappear, but only for a time.
Eventually the all black cabinet would reappear in another arcade,
somewhere far away where the legend of the Polybius video game had not yet been heard.
“Well thanks a lot, now I’m afraid to play my own video games,”
you say as the fire flickers and cast shadows onto the forest trees around you. One of your
friends rubs his hands together. “You’ve all heard of the genie in the magic lamp right?
But do you know the urban legend of the jinn, which is what the genie is based off of?” You look
at your friend. “You’re not going to ruin Aladdin for me are you?” you ask. Your friend just smiles.
Deep in the Arabian desert a man has lost his way. He runs out of water, and is severely dehydrated.
The man collapses from exhaustion and falls face first into the sand. He manages to pick
his head up to look around. In front of him stands a beautiful woman. She holds a jug full of water.
The man scrambles to his feet and takes the water from her. He drinks until he almost throws up.
“How can I ever repay you?” asks the man. The woman removes her face covering to reveal a mouth
full of serrated teeth. She contorts her body, and changes from a beautiful woman into a terrifying
monster, with horns coming out of its head and smoke filling the space around it. The man screams
and pleads for mercy. The jinn opens its gaping maw and consumes the man whole. Then it transforms
back into the beautiful woman, and waits for the next unsuspecting victim to cross its path.
You shudder at the thought of the friendly genie from the Disney films being a man eating monster.
“Don’t be such a scaredy cat,’ one of your other
friends says. “Besides if you think that was bad, wait until you hear this one.”
Everyone has nightmares about something under the bed. But The Body Under the Bed legend is
said to be true. It goes like this. One night a couple is on vacation. They are having the
time of their life and fall asleep after a long day of fun activities. In the middle
of the night they are awoken by a horrible smell. It reeks as if something, or someone,
has died in the room. They try to sleep through it, but can’t get past the smell.
The couple calls down to the lobby and informs the concierge of the odor.
The hotel staff come up to the room and check everywhere for the source of the smell,
but they can’t find it. The hotel is completely booked, so they do a quick
cleaning of the room and spray air freshener. The smell seems to have subsided for now.
The next day the hotel crew takes apart the room looking for the source of the smell.
They clean under the bed and all around the hotel room. The smell still lingers.
The hotel crew takes the mattress off of the bed and unzips the mattress cover.
They slide the cover off to unveil a dead body within the mattress cover.
The couple had been sleeping on top of the dead body the entire night.
“That’s gross,” says everyone around the campfire. “Oh I’m not done yet,
says the storyteller. Things are about to get so much grosser.”
This one is called The Licked Hand. One night a young girl awakens to the sound
of dripping water. It is the first time her parents have left her all alone at night,
while they enjoy a weekend away. However, the girl has her faithful dog to protect her.
The night is cloudy. The wind howls. From the bathroom down the hall the little girl hears
a dripping noise. It sounds like the sink hasn’t been turned off all the way. She cautiously gets
out of bed and makes her way to the bathroom with the dog by her side. She enters and is
startled by something moving. She slams her hand against the light switch on the wall,
and when the light comes on, she laughs at herself. It was only her reflection in the mirror.
The girl checks the faucet, but it’s not dripping. She shrugs, turns off the light, and heads back to
her room. The girl climbs into bed and tries to fall back asleep, but the dripping sound
continues. She curls up under the covers and slowly drifts off. The girl is awakened later
that night by a nightmare. She reaches down to pet her faithful dog who licks her hand reassuringly.
The dripping sound seems to have gotten louder. The girl squeezes her eyes shut and wills the sun
to rise. Eventually, due to the intermittent licks of her trustworthy dog, she falls back asleep.
In the morning the girl wakes up and decides to do a more thorough sweep of the house.
She steps out of bed and notices her dog isn’t there anymore. She calls for him,
but the dog doesn’t come. The girl walks down the hall to the bathroom. The door is shut.
She turns the handle and slowly opens it. When she turns on the light she screeches in horror.
In the bathtub lies the remains of her mutilated dog. It has been slaughtered during the night.
On the bathroom wall, written in blood, are the words: “humans can lick hands too.”
“What is wrong with you people?” you shout. “I’m never going to be able to sleep again.”
Everyone laughs and reassures you that they are just urban legends, and none of
it is real. But you can’t help but feel that all urban legends originated from somewhere.
You know that behind every legend, there is a hint of truth.
Now check out “Scary Urban Legends That Will Keep You Up At Night.” Or watch
“Terrifying Urban Legends That Turned Out To Be Real.”