A creepypasta is basically the modern version of telling scary ghost stories around a campfire,
only instead of campfires people now use forums to create internet lore that is shared and
discussed around the world, so join us as we count 10 of the most disturbing creepypastas
ever told.
The Slender Man You may know the Slender Man from the popular
online video game that you definitely shouldn’t play alone in the dark with headphones on
(trust me).
But the Slender Man has a history well before his long, faceless body was turned into pixels.
The Slender Man is a being who looks like a man with extremely long, slender arms and
legs.
He also appears to have 4 to 8 long, black tentacles that protrude from his back, though
different photographs and enthusiasts disagree on this fact, and therefore it is theorized
he can 'contract' these tentacles at will.
He is described as wearing a black suit strikingly similar to the visage of the notorious Men
In Black, and as the name suggests, appears very thin and able to stretch his limbs and
torso to inhuman lengths in order to induce fear and ensnare his prey.
Once his arms are outstretched, his victims are put into something of a hypnotized state,
where they are utterly helpless to stop themselves from walking into them.
In the past, and still to this day, he haunts the forums of the internet with his disturbing
obsession with children and those who become obsessed with his existence.
Nobody knows what happens to the bodies since nobody has ever escaped from an encounter
with him.
The Russian Sleep Experiment Shortly after World War II, five political
prisoners were subjected to an experiment in which they had to remain awake for 30 days
in a tank filled with an experimental gas.
After some time, the test subjects began to lose their minds among a number of other gruesome
symptoms.
However, the horror does not end when the experimenters try to save their subjects — far
from it.
Just know that this story may not be appropriate if you are squeamish or dislike gore, as the
narrative goes into very graphic detail about the physical state of the patients.
Thankfully there are no pictures, but honestly the words are enough to make this some serious
nightmare fuel.
Jeff the Killer The picture of Jeff the Killer is perhaps
one of the most disturbing you can find on the internet today.
The basic story concerns Jeff, a serial killer who hides in the closet and whispers to its
victim, "Go to sleep," before slaughtering everyone in the household.
Even more disturbing than his M.O. is his appearance — his face is smooth and stark
white, a huge grin and small lid-less eyes.
He is one of the most easily recognizable creepypastas, with his eerie stare posted
across forums.
His origin story involves a fight that resulted in a chemical burn on his face and caused
him to go insane.
Soon after, he murdered his family and disappeared into the night to make guest appearances in
your nightmares.
BEN Drowned Hacked video games are often found in creepypastas,
but none is more famous than BEN Drowned, the story of Matt, a college-age boy who picks
up a hacked cartridge of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask at a garage sale.
As the boy plays, he captures the strange occurrences in the game and real life until
it ultimately culminates into a full haunting.
The narrator and BEN's fates are left up to the reader's imagination, but the tale implies
that a happy ending is not in the realm of possibility.
Unlike most creepypastas, this one has both a story version and videos of the disturbing
gameplay, including a strange warped soundtrack.
Robert the Doll Not for the faint of heart, Robert the Doll
really exists.
The myths surrounding him vary, especially since it became so popular on the Internet.
The doll was given to artist Robert Eugene Otto in the late 1800s or early 1900s by a
servant working in his family home.
The doll, which he named after himself, then took on a life of its own and began to terrorize
the family.
Otto is said to have kept his doll into adulthood and it subsequently tormented his late wife
to insanity.
When the doll was found by another family, the girl to whom it was given was terrified
of it and refused to have it in her room.
The doll is currently residing in the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Fla.
Visitors must ask Robert politely if they want to take his photo.
If they mock him or take his photo without permission, Robert is said to lay a curse
on them.
Candle Cove Everyone has a childhood television show that
they have fond memories of, one that brings nostalgia, for me it’s Ed, Edd n Eddy and
good old Johnny Bravo.
And then, there’s Candle Cove.
Some adults re-discover this show from the 1970s on a television forum, but slowly their
memories of the show grow darker and reveal more and more disturbing things.
While the forum thread starts out innocent enough, we soon learn that the main character
who was a little girl is actually being mentally tortured rather than enjoying her experience,
and the set of the show turns real and very dark indeed.
While all these people are remembering details of the show very similarly, it’s revealed
in the ending that there was no TV show called Candle Cove, they were all actually watching
TV static for 30 minutes and imagining everything.
The Goatman The story follows a teenager who goes down
to Alabama to be with his extended family.
While he, his cousins and their friends are camping out in the woods, they see a strange
figure jerking and spouting gibberish as it follows them.
They spend the rest of the night in fear as the Goatman slowly infiltrates the group,
terrorizing the teens into a frenzied state of paranoia.
This continues for another few nights.
The headcount of the group of teens starts off at 12, but soon drops to 11, nobody realizing
who is missing – since they hadn’t known each other for long enough.
After a day or two, 4 of the group decide to leave while the rest decide to stay, more
creepy noises are heard, the smell of burning blood and banging on the door.
While the entire story is too long to share on here, the writer describes the voice of
the goatman to be obviously non human, and links to a video of a cat talking, which sounds
like this:
Persuaded Zombies definitely have a place in creepypastas,
especially after having taken over the majority of pop culture.
However unlike most other Zombie stories in this instance they aren’t slow walking mindless
bodies, moaning while they hunger for flesh.
After a massive oil spill, all those touched by the substance begin to viciously attack
other creatures, causing mass panic across the country.
The nameless protagonist holes himself up in his house, waiting for the screaming, violent
horde to come crashing through his door and tear him limb from limb.
And indeed after some time they do manage to break into his house, run right up to the
door behind which he is sitting.
But they do not try to break in, claw the door down and tear him limb from limb.
Instead, they whisper to him “we’ve come for you”.
“You’ll be happier if you open the door”.
“It’s not so bad”.
After 2 days of this mental torture, it seems our protagonist has given up since he finishes
his report with “maybe it won’t be so bad”.
Smile Dog If there's any story on this list that best
captures the message "be careful what you wish for," Smile Dog is it.
The creepypasta deals with an image posted on an old Bulletin Board system back in 1992
called smile.jpg.
Those who saw the image either disappeared or died, save for one Mary E., who the narrator
goes to interview.
What he eventually learns is that some things, even simple pictures, are better left as mysteries
than dealing with the horrifying truth.
In case you were wondering, the story does come with an accompanying image, and while
I probably shouldn’t show you this image, and you probably don’t want to see it, here
it is anyway.
Annora Petrova Annora Petrova was one of the most promising
figure skaters in the United States, until she discovered a sentient Wikipedia page about
her.
Each time she had a competition coming up, the Wikipedia page would tell her that she
had already won the event before it even happened.
This led her to selfishly alter her fate by editing the page, but things didn’t go the
way she planned.
Once she saved the page, instead of it saying that she had won the Olympic gold medal, the
page told her she’s selfish and she would get what she deserved.
The next day, she gets banned from skating and everybody refuses to speak to her.
After some time, the page messes with her head by telling her she’s a pathetic little
orphan, but it becomes true.
I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s definitely worth a read.