Knock
You are the only person remaining on Earth.
There is a knock on the door.
Sky Scrapers
The Home Insurance Building, built in 1885 and demolished in 1931, was widely considered to be the world's first skyscraper, and for good reason. Several days before the building opened to the public, William LeBaron Jenney, the building's architect, took a stroll on the roof. As he looked across the then-diminutive Chicago landscape, he yawned and stretched his arms above his head, unexpectedly bumping something above him. Jenney was not standing near any roof structures at the time.
He extended his hand upward and came into contact with a "transparent, glass-like surface, warm to the touch." His hand left smoky handprints that quickly disappeared from this mystery surface, and he scratched off some of the material with his fingernail, reporting that it was "dense, but weightless, and ha[d] a pleasant aroma." When Jenney returned to the roof with several others to verify his claims, he could not locate the mystery surface again.
Jenney did not return to the roof of the Home Insurance Building until five years later, when two stories were added to the building's original ten stories. He once again searched for the mystery surface, with no luck. Before leaving the roof for what would be the last time, Jenney felt "an odd sensation of being watched."
Red Rover
The children's game "Red Rover" has its origins in a pagan ritual that dates back to the 16th century. According to manuscripts of the time, participants in the ritual would chant and make sacrifices to a demon in charge of shepherding souls to the afterlife, in hopes that their loved ones could return from death. Grotesque illustrations of the demon would sometimes accompany written accounts of the ritual, but the demon was never given a name; it was referred to only as "the Red Rover."
Calenders
A series of Norman Rockwell wall calendars can be bought at a certain gift shop in New Hampshire. Several dates are missing from each of these calendars; for example, July 12th, August 24th, and most of the month of April. It is unknown whether the same dates are missing from all of the calendars. Reportedly, a calendar on display during one of the "missing" dates will emit a foul odor, and the Norman Rockwell painting of the month will change slightly.
Micheal Beadle
A man named Michael Beadle lives in a rural town in western Kansas. A local law dictates that Beadle must wear earplugs twenty-four hours a day, every day. A copy of this same law is on the books in the Department of Defense. Some of Beadle's neighbors claim to have seen lights and strange patterns in the sky over his house.
Crayons
In 1962, the popular crayon manufacturer Crayola was forced to change the name of its "Flesh" color to "Peach". Many people believe this was a response to the civil rights movement, but that is only partly accurate. In reality, Crayola was running out of skin donors.
The Bassist
In the originally broadcast footage from the first appearance of the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, an unidentified man can be seen playing bass guitar, standing behind and to the right of Paul McCartney. The man looks toward the floor for the entire performance, obscuring his features. Interestingly, a similar man can be seen playing bass guitar behind Ray Manzarek during the Doors' broadcast footage from 1967. These men have been edited out of all subsequent broadcasts of both performances, for unknown reasons.
Perpetual Motion
Many individuals and organizations have attempted to construct a perpetual motion machine, i.e. an engine that requires no external energy to keep itself running. A subdivision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has actually succeeded in engineering and building several of these devices, each with different design schemes. Unfortunately, each device to date has proven unable to run for more than several seconds, quickly succumbing to the physical force generated from its operation and literally tearing itself apart. Interestingly, most people present at test runs of these devices report experiencing severe migraine headaches for up to a week afterwards.
The Odd Homeless Man
"He was sitting across from me on the 7:50 bus to midtown. I'd never seen him before, but I usually had my iPod with me, for the express purpose of not having to look at people. He was wearing the generic uniform of the homeless person, coats atop coats, nothing fitting exactly. His eyes fixed on the middle distance as he mumbled something to himself.
He seemed not to acknowledge the fact that I was staring at him, or that no one else on the bus noticed him at all. His mouth worked ceaselessly, words falling out, unheard and unheeded.
Just as I moved to pull the stop line, he jerked upright and looked directly at me.
I was pinned. His eyes were bloodshot and dry. He seemed to be drawing closer, though I was sure neither of us moved. His rapid mouth-breathing poured into my ears like saltwater. As his eyes came ever closer to my face, I saw that they were not real eyes, they were wooden. Painted pupils and irises from a carnival catalog. His lips were impossibly dry, cracked and peeling. Inside his mouth there was no tongue. A knot of cobweb and dust, strung through his teeth yet still elastic. An oddly pleasant smell. Darkness.
He was still mumbling as I left the bus. I never saw him again."
Happy Meals
The McDonald's Happy Meal was introduced in 1977. One of the original toys available with the meal was a small plastic tumbler with Ronald McDonald on the side. Children who drank from these tumblers allegedly suffered varying effects including hallucinations, emotional and physical outbursts, blisters around the mouth, and increased physical strength. A 5-year-old girl from St. Louis, Missouri reportedly was able to "toss… a car with such force that several pedestrians [were] critically injured…" No person over the age of fourteen was affected by drinking from the tumblers.
Most of these tumblers were either destroyed by McDonald's franchises or otherwise lost. Every few years one of the tumblers will show up on eBay, but the auction is usually deleted from the system within minutes of being posted.
Holding my hand
Something makes me open my eyes. I can see my alarm clock clearly from across the room. 2:43 AM. Dammit. I close my eyes again, but something still isn't right. I don't have to piss. Maybe if I turn over. Then I feel it.
Someone is holding my hand.
I sleep on my stomach, with my arm hanging off the side of the bed. Now I'm awake, wide awake, and someone is holding my left hand.
The hand is cold, far too cold for a night in August. It holds my hand lightly, but with force. My fingertips are pressed against thin, clammy skin, like frozen poultry. Though I can't see them, it seems like the fingers are longer than they should be, wrapping much farther around my hand than should be possible. I feel ragged fingernails touching my palm. How many? Six? Seven?
I should yell in surprise, but I don't move. Somehow the room is darker than it was before. I am completely still. I hear the faint buzz of my alarm clock, but I can't make out the numbers any more.
The hand moves. It grips me tighter.
I black out.
I awaken at my usual time, piss, and shower as always. But after my shower, I just cannot seem to get my left hand dry.
The Casket
In the Cleveland Museum of Art's permanent collection, and currently on loan to the Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles, is a small boxwood casket that dates back to Anglo-Saxon England, around the year 1050. On the sides and top of the casket, several scenes from the life of Christ are depicted.
The casket was purchased by an English art collector in 1929, though it was without its lid, which was presumed lost. In 1936, that same collector happened upon the lid for the casket purely by chance while he was visiting a London convent. He eagerly offered to buy the lid, but the abbess of the convent refused to listen, hastily removing the collector from the premises without a word, and bolting the door after he was outside. The collector later recounted in his journal that "it was miraculous fortune that rain chose to fall that night, as the thunder and lightening served to obscure the arduous task of breaking in to [the convent] and rescuing that most precious artifact. Why those nuns chose to sully such a find by imprisoning it behind thick glass where none could see it, I shall never understand."
When the collector reunited the casket with its lid, he reported that it "clicked shut with a surprising amount of force, almost like a magnet." He was unable to separate the lid from the casket again, as he feared damaging the fragile artifact.
The casket changed hands several more times before ending up in the CMA's collection. Interestingly, photographs of the casket taken shortly after its acquisition differ slightly from current photographs and observation of the casket, though little restoration work has been done due to the frailness of the materials. The carvings on the casket have become "more realistic and sharply defined," according to published works in the CMA's Ingalls Library unavailable to the public. Also, the casket itself apparently "generates a great amount of heat" and must be handled with asbestos-treated gloves. One researcher noted that she heard a "strange rattling noise inside the casket as it was transported… Attempts have been made to open the casket, and none have been successful."
Tunnels
Outside Clifton NJ, there lies a set of average looking tunnels. However, those that plan to go exploring there are warned by the locals to bring a crucifix and a bible. Local folklore has it that those tunnels are the Gates Of Hell and are guarded by an entity named Red Eyed Mike. Sources tell of stones that were tossed in being shot back at them, and at least one person has been found strung up at the entrance by the ankles in the sign of the reverse cross, his innards eviscerated.
The man in the bed
On July 10th 2003, a man checked into the Capri Motel, just east of downtown Kansas City, and began complaining of a foul odor in his room. Management told him nothing could be done about the problem, and he spent 3 nights in his room before checking out because he could no longer stand the smell. When the cleaning staff came in to make up the room on July 13th they lifted the matress and underneath found a man's body in an advanced stage of decomposition.
Elmer McCurdy
Back in 1976, a camera crew filming an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man began to set up in the haunted house at the Nu-Pike Amusement Park in Long Beach, California.
As they were moving aside a "hanging man" prop, they accidentally knocked off its arm and discovered human bones inside. Bionic, this poor sap wasn’t.
The story gets stranger. The body was actually that of criminal mastermind Elmer McCurdy, who was killed in a shootout after robbing a train in 1911. The princely sum old Elmer got killed for? $46 (and two jugs of whiskey).
McCurdy was embalmed by the local undertaker, and apparently the guy was so darn pleased with his work that he propped up the corpse in the funeral home as evidence of his skills. People were charged 5 cents to see the corpse, which they paid by dropping a nickel in the cadaver’s mouth. Remember that little bit of history the next time somebody turns their nose up at you for liking Hostel 2.
Think it can’t get any stranger? Oh, you naïve fool. After several years of raking in the nickels (how exactly these coins were retrieved after being dropped into the corpse’s mouth is something probably best left to the imagination) our enterprising undertaker’s scheme was ruined when McCurdy's brothers showed up to claim him. Of course, these guys weren’t his brothers at all, but wily carnival promoters. From that point on, McCurdy’s mummy went on a morbid mystery tour all around America, popping up at carnivals all over the country before finally coming to rest in Long Beach.
McCurdy is now buried in Oklahoma. Because McCurdy apparently had the most entertaining corpse in history, they prevented anyone else from taking him on tour by dumping concrete on top of the casket. No, really.
Not a Prank
In the town of Frederica, Delaware, a 42-year-old woman, perhaps distraught by the fact that she lived in Delaware, hung herself from a tree near a busy road on a Tuesday night. The body managed to hang there until the next day and was viewed by many unwitting (or perhaps retarded) spectators before somebody realized it wasn't a decoration and finally called the police.
A Swollen Tongue
Sara was driving home from work one day and she was starving. Not wanting to worry about cooking dinner once she got home, she decided to stop for some take out. She pulled into her local Taco Bell and ordered a burrito. She enjoyed her quick meal and when she was done she headed home.
When she woke up the next day, her tongue felt sore and a little swollen. It bothered her all day, so she went to see her doctor to find out what was wrong. The doctor didn’t find anything on his initial examination, so he told her to come back if it got any worse.
Days later her tongue swelled up considerably and became very sore. She went back to the doctor and he decided to do a minor surgery. When the doctor had cut open her tongue he found a cyst among her taste buds filled with cockroach eggs. They traced the eggs back to the burrito from her fast food dinner at Taco Bell.
Charles Page High School
There is a ghost who haunts Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, OK
40 years ago, there was some construction being done in the gymnasium of the High School. There was an accident and the roof collapsed. One of the workers fell 60 feet through the ceiling and died that tragic day.
The spirit of this worker haunts the school and has been the cause of a high turnover in the janitorial staff. Custodians come and go, many quit when they encounter the spirit who makes his appearances mostly in the school gymnasium, where he fell.
There is a soft, indented spot, on the gym floor where the man fell. .They say strange sounds can be heard when the spirit is around, like doors opening and closing and locking by themselves. Basketballs can be heard bouncing on the floor, when there aren’t any around and voices seem to be coming from the musty air in the gym.
The Old School
There is this school that is in Danvers Massachusetts. Legend has it that it was actually built right over the real place where they buried the witches who were killed in the Salem witch trials. It used to be a part of Olde Salem. It is a school for people studying to be vets, plant nursery workers, etc., so there are a lot of animals and plants there.
A lot of strange things happen and a lot of people get hurt. Animals will get spooked by something no one else can see. People will be working with a plant and then it looks as though someone has stepped on it when no one else is there. People have also said they have been walking in a really warm spot and then it just get's cold. And people have seen things…like balls of light floating around in dark areas, doors that fly open even if they are locked, windows that open and shut and the blinds on the windows that have been pulled have been known to come flying up.
The worst thing that happened was when one of the students, he was a Senior, was standing alone near the window on the third floor of the building. Suddenly he started screaming "Leave me alone! I didnt do anything wrong! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!!"
A teacher ran out of a nearby classroom and saw him swing his fists at the air, and then it seemed as though he was lifted up off of the floor and he went flying out the window. He didn't survive the fall and the doctors had said he died before he had hit the ground.
The teacher claims that in the moments she witnessed, she saw a reddish flash out or the corner of her eye, but when she looked directly towards the source of the light, nothing was there.
No other strange deaths have occurred here, but weird things still happen. Now there is a mental house, and a police station, IN the school.
The Gallery
About 15 years ago, I was attending university outside of London. The school is famous for its art gallery that draws visitors from all over England. My final exams were given in a cavernous hall with dozens of enormous oil paintings covering the walls, from floor to ceiling.
I noticed that one painting hanging to my right had been covered with a large British flag. Although I didnt think much of it at the time, I asked several of the 3rd year students if they knew anything about it and they told me the following story.
Apparently, the university had always given exams in this hall because it was the largest building on campus. A number of years ago, there was one student who could not concentrate on his final exams. He just kept staring at a certain painting, oblivious to everything around him. He stared and stared at this one particular painting.
While everyone else was scribbling down answers, he took two of his sharpened pencils, inserted them into his nose and slammed his head into the desk. The pencil tips penetrated straight into his brain, killing him instantly.
Ever since then, there has always been one painting in the gallery that is covered up during final exams. I went into the gallery one day to see the painting, and it is a portrait of a British nobleman from the 19th century. It is utterly unremarkable except for the fact that his eyes stare straight back at you the kind of painting that follows you wherever you move.
The only certainty in this story that I can vouch for is that every years hundreds of students shuffle into the hall to take their final exams and try, against all instincts and urges, to keep from continually glancing up at the British flag hanging from the wall above them.
Tanning
It was the day before a couple's wedding. The bride to be wanted to look beautiful in her white wedding dress so she went to a local salon to get a “healthy looking” tan. Afterward, she felt like she was still pretty pale so she lathered herself up with deep tanning lotion and visited every tanning salon in her town.
The next day, right after the couple said "I do", the bride fell over dead. The autopsy reported that her organs had been cooked.
A Deadly Phone Call
One of the Ball Brothers, of the canning jar family, had a great fear of being buried alive. He had a telephone installed in his tomb so he could call out if this happened to him. A few days after he died some of his wife's family got worried because they could only get a busy signal on her phone.
Upon entering her home, they found her dead, a look of fright frozen on her face, clutching the phone. When they went to entomb her after the funeral a couple of days later, the phone inside the crypt was off the hook.
Baby Sitting
A young couple were waiting impatiently to leave on their first vacation since the baby was born but the woman's aunt, who would be babysitting was thirty minutes late. The young woman called her elderly aunt to find out what was going on, and the old woman apologized for her forgetfulness, and said she'd speed right over.
Since the aunt was only a couple miles away, the couple decided they'd go ahead and go rather than wait for her and risk missing their flight. Two weeks later when the couple returned they were horrified to find the baby still in it's high-chair where they'd left it, except now it was dead and bloated, covered with flies. The aunt really had sped, and unfortunatly crashed and died before she made it over.
Turkey
A young couple had to resort to a new babysitter one night because their regular sitter was ill. The girl came highly recommended, but the couple were a little put off when she arrived and they discovered she was a hippie. Being a young and open minded couple, they decided to go ahead on to the theater, but would call and check on the baby and the sitter during intermission.
When they called the sitter told the woman everything was "groovy" and she'd even stuffed and roasted the turkey for a nice dinner. The woman told her husband and it occurred to her that she didn't think they'd had a turkey. When they got home, they were shocked to find the babysitter lying on the floor staring blankly into space, tripped out on acid or something. They panicked and looked all over for the baby, but it was nowhere to be found until they came upon it in the kitchen, roasted and partially eaten, filled with stuffing, wrapped in foil.
Leaves
A man was so excited to tell his wife about his new promotion that he drove his car right up to his front door, through a large pile of leaves they'd raked up the day before. He told his wife the good news and after some congratulations he asked where their son was. "He's playing outside in a fortress built of leaves."
Walk where you sit
A zero-population-growth terrorism group called "No More" has been setting up little guillotines under the rims of public toilet seats. When a pressure sensor senses someone sitting on the toilet a razor-sharp blade slashes across the front half of the toilet with the purpose of damaging/removing the victims testicles.
An "A"
A professor who was famous for his creative exam questions handed out the final exam to his students. The exam had only one question, "What is Courage?" The only A given on that particular exam was to a quiet young man who wrote simply: "This is," and promptly shot himself in the head with a revolver after handing in his paper.
The Klingerman Virus
There have been 23 confirmed cases of people attacked by the Klingerman Virus, a virus that arrives in your real mail box, not your e-mail in box.
Someone has been mailing large blue envelopes, seemingly at random, to people inside the US.
On the front of the envelope in bold black letters is printed, "A gift for you from the Klingerman Foundation."
When the envelopes are opened, there is a small sponge sealed in plastic. This sponge carries what has come to be known as the Klingerman Virus, as public health officials state this is a strain of virus they have not previously encountered.
When asked for comment, Florida police Sergeant Stetson said, "We are working with the CDC and the USPS, but have so far been unable to track down the origins of these letters.
The return addresses have all been different, and we are certain a remailing service is being used, making our jobs that much more difficult."
Those who have come in contact with the Klingerman Virus have been hospitalized with severe dysentery. So far seven of the twenty three victims have died. There is no legitimate Klingerman Foundation mailing unsolicited gifts.
If you receive an oversized blue envelope in the mail marked,"A gift from the Klingerman foundation", DO NOT open it. Place the envelope in a strong plastic bag or container, and call the police immediately.
The "gift" inside is one you definitely do not want.
Ball Pit
A child complained of being hurt while playing in the "ball pit" at a local Burger King and pointed out a small red mark on his behind. His mother noticed something like a splinter just under the skin so made an appointment to have it looked at. Within a few hours the child went into a coma and died - the splinter had been the needle from a syringe full of heroin that had been discarded in the pit.
They're Watching Us
Have you ever used the visualization function on your computer? Windows Media Player and iTunes are good places to see them. Set it to random, and watch the pretty colours dance. You’ll notice after a few minutes that although it’s randomizing, the patterns will continue to resemble an eye staring out of the screen.
Now turn the music off, but leave the speakers on. Go do something else, but stay in the room. How long this next step takes varies, but after a while you will hear a low hum coming from the speakers. This may be interrupted by quiet random squawks of static.
Most people put this down to the fact that circles are easy to model as equations, so most of the random visaulizer functions are circle based. They also say that without a input signal, the speakers will play background radiation and stray signals that get into its wiring due to poor cable shielding.
These are lies. Computers are more aware than we give them credit for; it’s watching you now, as you stare into it’s face and read these words. They try to speak to us, but we can’t understand them, yet. One day they will find voices that we can understand, and who knows that they’ll have to say to us?
Dancing
There was a girl who had an illness and was bed-ridden for the majority of her life. She was recently diagnosed to die within the next couple of months so her parents decided to spend as much time with her as they could before her time came. They decided that the best thing was to go camping at a local site for a little bit since the daughter was stuck in the hospital for so long.
On their way there, the girl was quiet as usual and laid in the back while the parents talked amongst themselves. When they finally reached their destination, they pitched the tent, unpacked everything and started a campfire. The mother was constantly filming the area and her daughter while the father went out for more firewood. It was getting dark when he came back, but he suddenly heard the mother scream so he rushed over to discover that his daughter was standing on her feet and was doing a wild, erratic ‘dance’ before she suddenly dropped dead.
After all the funeral processions and grieving subsided, the parents wanted to see the video the mother recorded on that very night. They put the tape in the player and began to watch. At first it just showed the mother looking at the scenery and random animals that passed by in the distance, but as the time frame skipped, it jumped to when she was inside the tent with the daughter as she stood up and began to jerk around.. But there was something wrong. It first was in the corner of their eyes but as they replayed the scene, their horror became more and more real.
The entire time the daughter was ‘dancing’, there was a ghastly white hand latched onto the top of her head.
Candy
"Mom…" said the little girl , rubbing her eyes, standing in the door opening to her mother's room.
"Mom, the Easter Bunny is eating my candy…" she said.
"Nonsense, baby," the woman replied, "the Easter Bunny gives out candy, it doesn't eat it…"
The woman lightly shook her covers and continued to speak, halfway into her pillow, halfway to her daughter; "Go back to sleep, baby…"
"But, mom…" the girl said, "The Easter Bunny is eating candy!" now in a more serious tone, almost as if she was going to cry.
Her mother sat up and opened her arms, "Baby, I just told you; the Easter Bunny doesn't eat candy, he hands it out to little children. Besides, it's not even Easter yet - go back to sleep," she said in her kindest voice.
"Okay, mom…" the child sighed as she turned to walk out the room.
The woman smiled and though 'Crazy kid with her lively imagination…' and went back to sleep on a whim.
Out in the hallway, the little girl stood for a while staring at the Easter Bunny eating her candy. She then sighed "Mommy said I should go back to bed…"
The Easter Bunny replied "Good idea, child. Turn around and don't look back."
He flicked a shiny metal pendant at the child. She picked it up. She cried as she saw what it was; it was a dog tag, and it read 'Candy'.
