The JFK Files � Did The CIA Orchestrate Kennedy�s Assassination?

On November 22nd 1963, US President John F Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper while travelling through Dallas for a rally. His exposed position (middle of an open road, sitting up in the back of an open-roof limousine), as well as the fact that his route was advertised previously, gave the assassin all the information he�d need in order to commit the deed. A little over an hour later, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of a police officer, and witnesses placed him at the scene of the assassination. No motive was established for either murder (both of which Oswald denied having any part in), but the witness testimony, coupled with the fact that Oswald was a self-proclaimed communist that wished to defect to the Soviet Union, were more than enough to convict him. With that said, Oswald was never sentenced, as only two days later he was shot dead on his way to court by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner that seemingly wanted revenge for the President�s death. And with that, the case was open and shut� At least as far as the government was concerned.

The public, however, were less than convinced. Many, many theories began floating around, and with the advent of modern communication, the theories only increased. Some claimed that Oswald was a double agent working for the USSR that was ordered to put a bullet in JFK. Others � that it was a mafia hit, given Kennedy�s supposed relations to the mafia. The most prevalent theory was that the whole thing was somehow orchestrated by the CIA and vice president Lyndon B Johnson, for one reason or another. Regardless, given the fact that no evidence was ever available, most theories remained just that � unconfirmed speculation that people put forward in an attempt to connect the dots. That is, until October 2017, when President Donald J Trump declassified thousands of documents pertaining to the event, claiming that the US public deserved to be informed about the nature of the incident. Of course, he didn�t release every single thing available, given that some files were deemed a matter of national security, but from what we did get, we�re able to get some pretty good ideas about what really went down� And, surprisingly enough, some conspiracy theorists might have been right all along.

First and foremost, let�s begin with the theory that is most likely not true � that the USSR (and, by extension, the KGB) was behind the assassination. According to numerous documents, the Soviet Union had a deep respect for JFK (which isn�t odd, considering just how much he did to strengthen American relations with them during some very turbulent times), to the point where bells were rung in his honor when the news of his death reached the Eastern Bloc. It�s also interesting to note that the USSR was scared that they would be blamed for this, given Oswald�s relations to them, and prepared to retaliate in case they were publicly accused. They even discuss the possibility that �a general with missiles� would try to retaliate. Apparently, the KGB launched its own investigation into the matter, which concluded that Lyndon B Johnson was heavily involved in it. Which isn�t a surprise at all considering the fact that, as it turns out, Johnson was apparently working with Jack Ruby (Oswald�s assassin), and had been a part of the Texas branch of the KKK in his early political career. Yikes.

So an internal investigation confirmed that Ruby was working for Johnson. That�s shady, but it�s not so bad, right? Oswald killed Johnson�s beloved friend, so Johnson hired a guy to shoot him down. It�s honestly a bit touching when you think about it! But wait� Why would he hire anyone to kill Oswald? He was literally being dragged to court when it happened, and there was a plethora of evidence (including photographic) that Oswald was guilty. So why shoot a guy doomed to the electric chair, anyway? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that Oswald was trained by the CIA, and bringing him to trial would�ve inevitably revealed some very dirty secrets. To quote the relevant documents, �Oswald subject was trained by this agency, under cover of the Office of Naval Intelligence, for Soviet assignments.� To put it simply, Oswald was being trained by the CIA specifically to serve as a double agent within the USSR. Kind of puts his whole claims of defection and communism into perspective, doesn�t it?

So, what�s the takeaway from this? To put it simply, out of the 3000 documents released publicly, none of them straight up reveal exactly what happened (it�s likely that the most incriminating pieces of evidence were either destroyed half a century ago or have been withheld from release), but they still paint a pretty incriminating picture. Lee Harvey Oswald, the supposed assassin of President Kennedy, was a CIA operative trained for undercover work in the USSR, and thus his communist ideology and desire to defect were most likely a sham. The Soviet Union had nothing to do with JFK�s death, and the likeliest mastermind behind it was Lyndon B Johnson, who secured himself the presidency through the act. Maybe Oswald was the real killer, ordered by Johnson to assassinate the President. Maybe he was just a CIA agent that ended up taking the fall because he was deemed dangerous (or was just selected at random), and was then shot before he could spill any secrets. Or maybe he went rogue and killed the President anyway, possibly blaming him for the death of Merilyn Monroe (to whom he sent fan letters). One thing�s for sure, though � in one way or another, Johnson and the CIA were heavily involved in the President�s death. It�s honestly a bit scary just how close this old �Whitest Kids U Know� sketch came to the truth.

The Man on Somerton Beach

Tamam Shud My very first blog post on �Death and Dementia� � a site originally dedicated to creepy, unexplained murders and deaths (before originally branching out to a far less grim subject matter, mostly general horror stuff) dealt with the death of Elisa Lam. She was a Canadian student who, on her visit to LA, mysteriously drowned in her hotel�s water tank despite the fact that she wasn�t even supposed to be able to get up there and her actions right before she passed are, frankly, unexplainable. At the time, I genuinely believed that the death of Elisa Lam was the most mysterious death that I�d ever learn about� But I was proven wrong. There�s a chance that Elisa�s demise, as tragic as it was, was merely an accident and has a perfectly mundane explanation � she had a psychotic breakdown, somehow found a way to climb up to the rooftop and drowned herself by accident, or something along those lines. The death of the man found on Somerton Beach, however, was certainly no accident, and it involves a conspiracy that we can�t even begin to guess about.

It all began in December 1948 on an Australian beach called, how else, Somerton Beach. The body of a man dressed in a suit and tie washes up there, and is soon discovered by police who took it in for examination. The autopsy revealed that, contrary to what one might assume, the man didn�t actually drown � he died from heart failure, most likely due to poisoning (even though no poison or any other chemicals were found in his body). Okay, so far it�s not THAT weird, he was probably some kind of mobster who was poisoned by his competition, or a businessman �silenced� by the competition, right? Well, that�s a fair assumption except for one small detail � nobody had any clue who this guy was. His fingerprints didn�t match up, nobody could identify the body, they even ran his picture on national news alongside a headline and not a single person was able to reliably identify him. For all the police knew, the guy was a ghost.

The investigation lasted for months with absolutely no clues to the man�s identity. His body was embalmed and buried, and that was that� Until four months following his discovery, an investigator found the very first breakthrough in the entire case, in the form of a hidden pocket found sewn inside the man�s trousers. Now, this is where it gets really interesting � what kind of man keeps a hidden pocket, let alone one that remains undiscovered for months? Regardless, inside the pocket was located a single piece of paper bearing the words �Tamam Shud�, meaning �It is ended� in Persian. It�s a phrase found within a collection of poems titled �Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam�, which led investigators to believe that the mysterious man must have been in possession of the Rubaiyat and must have torn the excerpt �Tamam Shud� from its pages, for whatever reason. A nationwide search for the book was launched, which lasted for another four months.

Out of nowhere, a man who read about the case in the newspaper stepped forward with a rather peculiar tale. He mentioned that one day he discovered a copy of the Rubaiyat in his car, but didn�t really think much of it until he read about the case in the newspaper. His story sounds like something fabricated by someone thirsting for 15 minutes of fame and seeking to obtain them by jumping on the mystery bandwagon, but believe it or not, the book he presented the police with was the real deal � there was a hole precisely where the words �Tamam Shud� were supposed to be which perfectly matched the piece of paper found inside the secret pocket. What raised even more questions was that, scribbled inside the book, were a cipher and a phone number. The phone number led investigators to the next clue. The cipher still remains unsolved to this very day.

The phone number belonged to a woman named Jessica Thomson, who, surprisingly, actually lived not too far from Somerton Beach. She was supposedly very evasive when questioned, with the only information that the investigators managed to get from her being that she gave a copy of the Rubaiyat to a man named Alfred Boxall. Suddenly it all made sense � this Boxall fellow was the mysterious man at the beach, who used his book as a clue to point the investigation towards Jessica Thompson! Except that�s not the case at all, because as it turned out not only was Alfred Boxall still alive, his copy of the Rubaiyat was still with him, completely intact. Another dead end.

To this day, nobody has any idea who the man on Somerton Beach actually was. DNA tests have proven inconclusive, and Jessica Thomson took whatever she knew to the grave when she passed away in 2007. Who was this man? What killed him? Why was Jessica so reluctant to speak about him, and if she truly knew nothing, why was her phone number in his book? What�s up with the codes, ciphers and secret pockets? We can�t even begin to formulate theories because we don�t really know a thing about him. We�re just as perplexed today as the investigators were half a century ago, and unless somebody manages to crack the code written within the Rubaiyat (which may no longer even be possible, as the actual book was lost, so if there were any clues hidden within they would no longer be accessible), chances are that this is one mystery that will elude us forever.

3 Times �Black Mirror� Predicted The Future

If you haven�t heard of �Black Mirror� before� Boy, do I have a treat for you today! Do you know shows like �The Twilight Zone� or �The Outer Limits�? You know, where every episode tells an entirely different story, but they�re all vaguely sci-fi related and have a twist in the end? Well, �Black Mirror� is the modern equivalent of that, except it�s also way better. Created by British satirist Charlie Brooker, the show uses its anthology format and technology-related themes to explore the darker side of humanity in incredibly creative ways. The titular Black Mirror refers to the screens we use on our TVs, phones and tablets, but it�s also a metaphor for the way the show uses technology to show us a reflection of ourselves (for example, in one episode a society ruled by social media is used to showcase the mask we place in order to seem likeable to others). The entire show is only 13 episodes long (6 of which were just released a few weeks ago), and it�s all available on Netflix, so you should definitely check it out if you�re in the mood for something that makes you think! And then there�s also the fact that the show has been eerily prophetic at times, predicting future events way before they happened. Events like�

1. A Woman Creates An AI Replica Of A Deceased Loved One

The 2013 episode �Be Right Back� sees a woman grieving over the loss of her fianc�e. In order to get over that loss, she commissions the services of an agency that collects a deceased individual�s e-mails, texts, social media information and IM messages and essentially creates an AI replica of them designed to emulate their online presence as quickly as possible. Imagine chatting with your passed loved ones again, except it�s not really them, but rather a machine doing an extremely good impression of them. Sounds like science fiction, right? In real life this could never happen! Well, don�t be so sure. In 2014, a project titled eterni.me launched which set to do pretty much the exact same thing, word for word. Still, that project never actually managed to get off the ground as far as I know (there has been no progress in two years), so how about we instead focus on a similar one that did? Meet Eugenia Kuyda, the CEO of Luka, a company that uses AI to create algorithms. She used the same software her company has developed in order to create an AI replica of her best friend, who had passed away several years prior. Honestly, at this point it�s just a waiting game until someone uploads the AI into a robot body and starts bringing dead people back to life.

2. Britain�s Prime Minister Has Intimate Relations With A Pig

�The National Anthem� is probably the weakest episode of �Black Mirror�, which is a shame because it�s also the first one, which turns many people off. It�s not that it�s bad, exactly, it�s just that the sci-fi dystopias the show is known for in later seasons takes a back seat to a plot that�s not exactly easy to watch. In the episode, a beloved princess is kidnapped by an unknown assailant, who only has a single condition in order to release her � Britain�s prime minister needs to have sex with a pig live on television. The episode is all about how we fail to empathize with people and see anything on TV as a spectacle regardless of what those involved in it need to go through, but of course, that�s not what most people got out of it� Especially when in 2015 (4 whole years after the episode aired) it was exposed that David Cameron, Britain�s (now former) prime minister has had sex with a pig himself. And while there were no kidnapped princesses involved in real life, the circumstances were oddly similar, with Cameron allegedly being forced into the act as part of an initiation ceremony for the Piers Gaveston Society at Oxford University, where the Prime Minister studied. Regardless, in both �Black Mirror� and the real world, the men were never quite able to shake off their �pig lover� reputation, with the fictional Prime Minister having to divorce his wife over it and the real one losing his post less than a year later following Brexit.

3. An Offensive, Foul-Mouthed TV Star Is Elected Leader

Before the 2016 Presidential elections, people used to consider 2013�s �The Waldo Moment� to be one of the weaker episodes of the series� But honestly, I have a feeling attitudes are going to change very, very quickly on that one. �The Waldo Moment� revolves around Waldo � a blue bear who is the foul-mouthed mascot of a political show, portrayed via real-time motion capture by a comedian. Waldo�s entire point is that he�s offensive, rude and consistently attacks the political candidates in all sorts of low ways, which the public highly supports because A) they hate most of the candidates, seeing them as two-faced liars, and B) Waldo is saying a lot of things that they actually agree with. Just for fun (and for a nice boost of ratings), the producers decide to have Waldo run in a local election� Except the public loves him and starts voting for him, especially after he goes viral on YouTube. And while Waldo only comes second in the local elections, we see in the epilogue that following the events of the episode he has been elected as some kind of global leader, much to the disdain of the comedian who created him. And, well� I don�t think I really need to say anything more. If you don�t know how this came true, I am seriously jealous of the rock you�ve been living under.

The �Poltergeist� Curse

Poltergeist Curses are a tale as old as time � we have evidence that the earliest civilizations, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Persians or even Mesopotamians, actively tried to prevent their dead from cursing the living through the use of various rituals and items, like amulets and specially constructed tombs. Independently of each other, living hundreds of years and thousands of miles apart, every civilization somehow got the same idea: if you disrespect the dead, they will drag you down with them. It�s actually quite a fascinating phenomenon, but perhaps it can be explained by a general fear of death, or more importantly, of a fear of being treated right after death. We have no control over what happens to our bodies after we leave this Earth, and as such we need to leave some kind of warning to our families to ensure that they don�t just toss our remains out somewhere and call it a day. Warning them of haunting from beyond the grave is the most effective way to do that, right? But as progress marches on, we gradually learned that there�s no such thing as curses and we should be taking proper care of our dead out of pure human decency and not because of fear. But that only makes actual, real life examples of curses so much more frightening.

Most of us have at least heard of the 1982 movie �Poltergeist�, which, alongside �The Exorcist�, pretty much ushered in a renaissance of modern horror that we�re still seeing the benefits of to this day (if you�re a fan of modern horror classics such as �Oculus� or �Sinister�, you have those movies to thank). But as well as the movie turned out in the end, it wasn�t without its problems. Production was quite troubled, with $10 million budget being nowhere near enough to cover everything that the filmmakers wanted to do. As a result, some corners had to be cut, and unfortunately, the best decisions weren�t always made during that process. Those of you who have seen the movie undoubtedly remember the disgusting pool scene in which Diane is thrown into a pool filled with rotted skeletons. What you may not have known is that, while it might be a bit hard to believe, the skeletons in question were entirely real. Indeed, the producers found it a lot cheaper to just �acquire� several real skeletons rather than commission rubber props, and so the remains of several human remains were thrown into the pool. The actress, or anyone else, wasn�t told about this until much later.

Less than five months after the movie�s release, Dominique Dunne, one of its stars, was murdered by her boyfriend, strangled by him in her own driveway during a blind fit of rage. The boyfriend in question, John Sweeney, immediately turned himself in, making a full confession. According to him, he had no recollection of the accident � the only thing he remembered is suddenly finding himself on top of her, with his hands around her neck. While he immediately stopped himself, the damage had already been done and Dunne had to be pulled off life support five days later. Three years later, in 1985, Julian Beck � a star of the sequel, �Poltergeist II: The Other Side�, passed away unexpectedly from stomach cancer. In 1987, Will Sampson, another sequel actor, suddenly died of malnutrition and kidney failure. But the most tragic example of the �Poltergeist� curse comes from its youngest star, Heather O�Rourke, who was only seven years old when she starred as the youngest daughter of the haunted family. Five years later, the child passed away due to cardiac arrest from a misdiagnosed intestinal issue. But the stars are not the only ones who seemed to drop one by one � Lou Perryman, who had the small role of Pugsley, was killed by an ax-wielding ex-convict in his own home.

I guess you can make the argument that any franchise as old as �Poltergeist� will have its fair share of tragedies� But then again, you don�t really hear much about the �Ghostbusters� curse, or the �Back to the Future� curse. No matter how you look at it, it seems quite peculiar that so many of its cast members have died in these mysterious circumstances within such a relatively short time. Who knows, maybe it�s all just a coincidence� Or maybe ancient civilizations were right to fear the dead.

Death By Slot Machines

david gest We�ve all heard of the horrible stories about how gambling can destroy a person�s life. I distinctly remember reading about a person in Britain who was addicted to betting, and the company with which he placed his bets got into some hot water because the employees recognized his addiction and how he was spending every penny he had, but were encouraged to keep taking his bets anyway. Roulette, blackjack, betting� The �big� gambling activities can all ruin lives. But not slots, right? Slots are innocent! They only take, what, 50p at a time? No big deal! That�s less than a bottle of coke! Surely if you were addicted to slots you can�t possibly lose more than a few pounds! Oh, but you can lose a lot more� Like your life.

Have you ever heard of David Gest? You might have, or you might not have � he�s an American comedian who spent a lot of his life in the UK starring in shows like �I�m a Celebrity� Get Me Out Of Here� and �Big Brother� and producing many others. He�s notable for being the first American to have three prime-time series in the UK, which is truly saying something. To be perfectly honest, I don�t know much about Gest, but it�s pretty obvious that the guy was talented. So it�s truly a shame that he was found dead in a hotel room back in April. While the cause of death isn�t publicly disclosed, police have stated that it�s not �suspicious�, but the guy didn�t have any lingering health problems, nor was he extremely old, so I can only assume that it was either suicide or a stress-induced heart attack. Why would I think that?

Well, because soon after his death it came to light that Gest was �500,000 in debt, which he accumulated by blowing �10,000 a day on� Slot machines. Yes, on the very same 50p-a-play machines which I described at the beginning of this article. According to reports, Gest often played two slot machines at once for hours at a time, hoping to hit that lucrative jackpot. By the time of his death, his estate was pretty much gone, and remember � we�re talking here about a producer of multiple prime-time TV series, so he wasn�t just some nobody. It wouldn�t be an unfair assumption to say that he was killed by slot machines.

Considering just how many real money slots are available to us at any moment, it�s very important to be vigilant and be aware of the danger of addiction. It�s not just betting and roulette that can get you addicted, it�s absolutely any and all forms of gambling. While slots can be lots of fun, in the right circumstances, please seek help the moment you feel like you even might need it. My condolences go to David Gest�s family and friends, and I can only hope that gambling will never take another victim again.

The Highest Bet Ever Made

Captain Webb Do you remember the last time you made a bet, or a wager? Maybe you were with some friends at a pub having fun, or perhaps at a casino trying to make some easy money. Or maybe you were online, playing live roulette while watching a movie like I often like to do. Indeed, roulette is the game of choice when playing for high stakes, but it wasn�t always like this. No, not too long ago, you could play a game a lot more dangerous than roulette, and you could wager a lot more than your money. One man in particular bet everything, even his very life, and was forever immortalized in history for it. While chances are you may not have heard his name, he used to be a celebrity during his time and even got a movie about his accomplishments! Sit tight, and I�m going to tell you about the daring wager of Captain Webb.

Born in 1848, Matthew Webb was one of 12 children in his British household, which was pretty common for his time. When he was 15 years old, he performed his first taste of heroics by rescuing his little brother from drowning. It was precisely that incident which made young Matthew fascinated with swimming and water in general, which prompted him to start working on cargo ships, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. In 1873, he managed to save the life of a fellow sailor who had fallen overboard, which won him an award of �100, as well as his first taste of recognition and fame. Almost addicted to it, two years later Captain Webb decided to double-down on his feats by becoming the first man to swim the English Channel � a feat which, even today, has been performed by less people than have climbed Everest.

Webb had to swim 21 miles using the breast stroke technique and a few times came very close to drowning, but the encouragement of the sailors around him helped him make it. The feat turned him into an overnight sensation, with companies racing to sign endorsement deals with him. Captain Webb began showing up on everything from posters to match boxes, and many event organizers paid him just to show up, knowing that his presence alone would attract attention. But fame doesn�t last forever, and soon enough, the world had moved on to something more interesting. The endorsement deals dried up, the event appearances ran out, and so did the money.

Captain Webb was desperate. At this point, he couldn�t just return to his old job as a ship captain � he�d grown quite fond of being the center of attention. He knew that he had to somehow outmatch his previous feat, but how? The answer lied in a bet. If he could swim across the Whirlpool Rapids below Niagara Falls, he was going to win a sponsorship of �12,000, and all of the fame he could ever want. The problem was that, true to their names, the Whirlpool Rapids were full of extremely dangerous whirlpool, and swimming across them was considered suicide. If he failed, Captain Webb was going to pay with his life. And yet he decided he was going to do it anyway.

On July 24th, 1883, wearing the same swimsuit he wore when crossing the English Channel, the Captain made his first and only attempt at crossing the Whirlpool Rapids. Initially, everything went well� Until a huge wave sent him right into a whirlpool, which sucked him in. His body was found four days later, having been crushed by the water pressure before he could ever drown. One might assume that people would call his death arrogant and unnecessary, but surprisingly, there was a lot of public support for him and his family at the time, with newspapers calling him the Greatest Englishman. He was buried in Niagara, with his brother later erecting a memorial in his home village of Dawley with the inscription �Nothing great is easy�. That memorial is still there, and it, alongside the movie based on his story and the countless pieces of history with his image, will forever immortalize one of the greatest athletes who ever lived, and also the man who made the highest bet of all time.

How To Write A Horror Story?

Short horror stories have existed in written form for literally centuries, popularized by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. Their works, such as �The Raven� or �Call of Cthulhu�, have inspired numerous generations to pick up the pen and try their own hand at writing horror stories, which were usually published in magazines or collections. However, with the mass adoption of the Internet in the 2000s, it suddenly became a whole lot easier to share your horror stories with the world, which in turn made them more popular than ever. These so-called �creepypastas� have taken the Internet by storm, with literally thousands upon thousands of them filling up the Creepypasta Wiki. I wouldn�t be surprised if you wanted to write one of your own, but didn�t know how. Fear not � after reading literally hundreds of Creepypastas, I�m here to give you a few tips!

Make It Scary!

This may seem a bit like a no-brainer, but it�s actually one of the prime faults of Creepypastas. Some are just not scary at all. A prime example would be �Jeff the Killer�, which, aside from being terribly written overall, is also not scary in the slightest. The main character, Jeff, is a normal 13 year old boy who gets bullied a lot, so he decides to kill all of his bullies and his parents as well, for good measure. That�s not scary, that�s just revenge porn! There�s no horror here! Horror is more than having killers or demons in your story, it�s about building dread and suspense. Take, for example, �The Harbinger Experiment�, where a demon gets loose inside a research lab and slowly makes its way towards the scientists while killing all the soldiers and security personnel sent to contain it. That�s terrifying! More like that, please!

Have a Twist Ending

This one�s not really mandatory, because you can have decent stories even without a twist (such as �To My Sister Becky�), but a twist ending definitely makes your story a lot more memorable. Let�s compare, for example, two �lost episodes� Creepypastas � �Squidward�s Suicide� and �Dead Bart�. In both, a lost episode of a popular children�s show is found which is creepy, unsettling and has lots of grotesque imagery. In �Squidward�s Suicide�, the story ends with the authorities being alerted, which is a fine ending, I guess, but it�s not particularly memorable. �Dead Bart�, however, is far scarier. In the final shot of the lost episode, a graveyard is shown with the names of all guest stars who ever appeared on �The Simpsons� being inscribed upon the tombstones. The dates of birth and death below the names of those who had already passed were accurate, but the date of death of those who were still alive was exactly the same. That�s horrifying!

Perfect Your Writing

Last, but not least, proofread! What separates an okay story from a great story is definitely the writing style. While the editors of the Creepypasta Wiki do a whole lot of editing themselves, it�s ultimately up to you to make sure your story reads great, flows great and sounds great! Remember � if your story is good enough, it will eventually be read by YouTubers on their channels, so you want to be sure that it sounds well when read out loud. Read it to yourself, or have someone else read it to you while you take notes. At the end of the day, Creepypastas are just the campfire stories of the digital era. If they�re not told well, they�re simply not going to work!

The Scariest Creepypastas Part 2

Part two Welcome back, boils and ghouls, to some more creepy tales from the crypt! Did you enjoy the previous ones? Well, if you did, that�s good, because I�ve got even more creepy tales for your personal amusement! Let�s not waste any more time here and get right down to the stories! These are delicious!

A Favor for a Favor

Link to the Story
What it�s About: This is probably the best Creepypasta I�ve ever read. It�s so good! I�m not going to spend too much time on the description because I really want you to read it for yourself and experience it the way it was meant to be experienced. The gist of it is that a man learns that his wife is cheating on him with a local pastor. Completely distraught by the news, he decides to take a gun and shoot himself in the head in a hotel room. That�s when he gets a surprising visit from someone claiming to be the Devil himself. Not a devil, or a demon, or something like that � THE Devil, the lord of all evil. The Devil turns out to actually be a pretty reasonable guy, explaining that he�s made deals with lots of people before, and as such many � including a lot of folks in the police department � owe him favors. And because he�s feeling so generous, he plans to offer the protagonist a favor of his own. Instead of shooting himself, he can shoot the pastor AND his wife, and nobody�s going to care at all. There would be no legal repercussions, nor any strings attached to the whole ordeal. As the Devil explains, this isn�t a deal � it�s merely a favor. It seems too good to be true� But is it?

Trust me, this story is a whole lot more complicated than I could�ve made it sound. Written by a professional author (Vincent V. Cava) as opposed to a random Internet user, �A Favor for a Favor� shows a brilliant mastery of language and narrative, and is thoroughly amazing from start to finish. If you only ever want to read one Creepypasta, read this one!

The Russian Sleep Experiment

Link to the Story
What it�s About: Now, this is another one of those super ultra mega popular Creepypastas floating around the Internet, and once again, there�s a good reason for it. Placed in a historic setting, �The Russian Sleep Experiment� tells the tale of a group of Russian researchers who performed experiments on political prisoners and prisoners of war at the height of the second World War. That much is fact, not fiction. The story tells us about a particular experiment where a special gas was made that would prevent a group of prisoners from going to sleep. The thing is, we don�t really understand much about sleep, and why the body needs it, and the study sought to prove that with the proper stimulation people could survive without sleep� And they can, if you can call the result �people�. I won�t spoil any more, but let�s just say, you�ll never miss another night of sleep for as long as you live!

�The Russian Sleep Experiment� was so popular and well-received that it spawned an entire genre of Creepypasta titled �Experiment Pastas�, as well as a whole lot of imitators that simply sought to copy its plot and beats. However, not all experiment pastas copied it � some used its motifs to weave an entirely new, terrifying plot, such as�

The Harbinger Experiment

Link to the Story
What it�s About: Very similarly to �The Russian Sleep Experiment�, the story takes place in a historical setting � the 1970s, to be precise. A doctor that can only accurately be described as a mad scientist believes that, through a complicated ritual and very specific conditions, creatures from alternative dimensions can be summoned into ours, and contact between them and us can be established with the use of human hosts. As such, he sets out to prove his theory by hiring people to build and staff a massive underground complex where the Harbinger Experiment would take place. Every safety precaution is taken � the testing area is several floors underground, there are numerous guards armed with automatic rifles and the entire facility is under heavy surveillance. Let�s just say… Mingling with the paranormal is rarely a good idea.

�The Harbinger Experiment� is creepy on so many levels! While the author spends a needless amount of time setting up the experiment and leading us through the various processes by which the setting was constructed, that just makes the inevitable moment when things go to hell all the more scary. And suffice to say, when that happens, it�s literally like something out of a nightmare. And it is awesome!

Did you enjoy these suggestions? Would you like some more? Send me a message with your favorite stories and maybe they�ll be featured here next time!

The Scariest Creepypastas Pt. 1

A Lantern If you ever went camping, then you probably remember sitting around the campfire as one of your friends, or even adults, tries to spook everyone out with the scariest story they could come up with, most concluding with the words �And they say that the killer is still roaming these very woods to this day!�, just to make sure that nobody will be getting any sleep that night. Scary stories are nothing new � people have been telling them to each other literally for centuries, under one form or another. The newest iteration of them is the so-called �creepypasta�, which, I assure you, has nothing to do with spooky Italian food. The term is derived from �copypasta� (which in turn comes from the words �copy� and �paste�), referring to short stories meant to be shared on online message boards. When the stories began getting spookier and spookier, the term was changed to �creepypasta�, and an online phenomenon was born! Creepypastas are short stories (usually between 100 and 3000 words) that are meant to unnerve you, make you feel paranoid and disturb you horribly. They�re all told as if they really happened, there�s no larger-than-life ancient gods there to assure you that the story is rooted in the realm of fiction, and they are awesome! So awesome, in fact, that I�m going to be listing my favorites right here. Keep in mind that I�m not necessarily listing the ones that are popular (though many are), mostly the ones that I personally found truly scary.

Candle Cove

Link to the Story
What it�s about: On a message board, a group of young people start reminiscing about an old TV show that they used to watch called Candle Cove. There�s no references to this show anywhere on the Internet � no clips on YouTube, no mentions of it on any websites, nothing. The original poster believes that he�s just going nuts, until another person confirms that they watched Candle Cove, and then another, and another. Before long, a small group forms talking about Pirate Percy and his crew of puppets who were trying to find the treasure of Candle Cove with the help of a human girl. But the more they discuss, the more they realize that something isn�t quite right�

This is one of the most famous Creepypastas of all time, and it is DEFINITELY worth a read! It�s short, sweet and brilliant, and has one of the best endings I�ve ever read. If you�re looking for a good introduction to the genre, this is it.

My Dead Girlfriend Keeps Messaging Me On Facebook

Link to the Story
What it�s About: Originally posted on Reddit, this Creepypasta details the experience of a young man who lost his girlfriend in a car accident back in 2012. Her boyfriend, the author of the post, mourned and then tried to move on, except about a year later he started receiving messages from his girlfriend on Facebook. After confirming that the only person besides him who knew her password hadn�t touched the account, the narrator tried to get to the bottom of it with the intention of preventing others from tarnishing his girlfriend�s memory by exploiting her account. Little did he know that things were about to get much worse. Suffice to say, someone, or something, was using the account and had little intention of stopping with just messages.

At first, this story was a multi-part one, with the author updating it on Reddit as it supposedly happened. I was one of those that followed along with its development, and I have to say, I was TERRIFIED, especially since to this day I have no clue whether it was just a fictional story like the rest or something supernatural was happening. There�s plenty of evidence (screenshots, photos, etc) to suggest that maybe, just maybe, something quite terrifying had befallen the young man for real.

To My Sister Becky

Link to the Story
What it�s About: Now for something a bit more traditional! Forum conversations and Reddit posts are fine, but there�s nothing quite like some good old prose! A pediatrician receives a mysterious e-mail telling her that if she takes video of her patients with a hidden camera she�d be paid an absurdly large amount of money, which she can use to care for her sick sister. She does it, but soon enough it becomes apparent that she�d become entangled in a child pornography ring. The guilt of her actions causes her to hallucinate a mysterious eye carved into the wall of every building she enters, constantly watching her and judging her. The eye distorts reality, causing her to see things differently and hear different words coming out of people�s mouths. Everything and everyone is judging her, calling her names and asking for her death. And as the eye�s power increases, so does the woman�s madness.

Even though this story isn�t all that popular, I really did enjoy it. Things start off rather disturbing and only continue to get creepier and creepier until the finale, by which point not even the reader is sure what is real and what is not. Highly recommended!

More recommendations coming soon!

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