Ten of the creepiest American urban legends. Mystical urban legends of the USA Mystical myths and legends
It’s hard to believe, but among the urban legends that scared us as children, there are often absolutely true ones. It often happens that scary stories told at night gatherings actually happened to real people.
Escalator that eats people
Legend: Parents often enjoy playing the role of horror movie director, even while teaching their children the importance of learning to tie their shoes. They mention a story about “that guy” who lived nearby and one day he didn’t tie his shoelaces and they ended up in a store escalator. The remains of his fingers are still being picked out from there using dental floss. However, after many safe trips on the escalator, it begins to seem that you are more likely to have a meteorite fall on your head than the escalator to swallow your fingers.
Truth: Escalators really seem to be as hungry as wolves. In this case, mechanical, intangible wolves who cannot stop after tasting human blood at least once. The laces are pulled inward, like cola through a straw. These are the words of Kevin Doherty, one of the escalator safety experts. According to him, it is simply not possible what an escalator can do to human flesh.
It happened that fingers and even feet were chewed by escalators. And the worst thing happens if the victim tries to escape from this “shredder for people.” Chances are, no one wants to deal with an escalator while they're in the middle of their meal.
For example, in 2003, a girl lost part of her arm when she wanted to free her shoe that was stuck in an escalator. And in 2005, a mistake for a 34-year-old man was choosing a hood as a headdress. He hit an escalator, which pulled the man down and suffocated him. Nobody knows whether he was trying to get his shoelace or just sat down on the escalator.
It's not just the teeth at the end and the beginning that are dangerous on an escalator. If you drag your foot in the place where the wall intersects with the steps, you may miss at least three toes. Escalators have a rebound motion that can become painful, even if they don't look like jaws with steel knives.
Girl from the closet
Legend: Almost everyone knows the feeling when you are in your room and suddenly it begins to seem like someone is watching you. This creepy quality of our brains often gives rise to ghost stories. Someone's whisper is heard from the depths of the house, and in the morning you can find a strange message on your forehead. All these fears are pretty irrational, aren't they?
Truth: A 57-year-old Japanese man began to notice that small objects in his house began to change their places on their own. Food disappeared, although he clearly remembered that he had not eaten it. At night strange noises woke him up, but each time the front door and windows were securely closed. There was no one else in his house.
Urban legends are often exciting stories containing many folkloric elements, and they spread quite quickly through society. Stories are told dramatically, as if they were true stories about real people - when in fact they may be 100% fictitious.
Local touches are often added to the legend, so it will be quite strange to hear the same story in different versions in different countries. Urban legends often carry a warning or some meaning that motivates society to preserve and spread them. One thing is for sure - some of these creepy urban legends have kept many people awake. Below are ten of the best urban legends:
10. Choking Doberman
This urban legend originates from Sydney, Australia and tells the story of a Doberman pinscher who choked on something. One night, a married couple went out for a walk and sat in a restaurant, when they returned home, they saw their dog choking in the living room. The man panicked and fainted, and the wife decided to call her old friend, a veterinarian, and arranged to bring the dog to the veterinary clinic.
After she took the dog to the clinic, she decided to return home and help her husband go to bed. This takes her some time and meanwhile the phone rang. The veterinarian screams hysterically into the phone that they need to quickly get out of their house. Without understanding what is happening, the married couple leaves the house as quickly as possible.
As they descend the stairs, several police officers run towards them. When the woman asks what happened, one of the officers replies that their dog choked on a man's finger. There is most likely still a burglar in their house. Soon after, the finger's former owner was found unconscious in the couple's bedroom.
9. Suicidal guy 
This story, also known as "Death of the Boyfriend", is told in many variations and is considered a general warning not to stray too far from the safety of your home. Our version will focus on Paris in the 1960s. A girl and her boyfriend (both college students) kiss in his car. They parked near the Rambouillet forest so that no one could see them. When they finished, the guy got out of the car to get some fresh air and smoke a cigarette, while the girl waited for him in the safety of the car.
After she waited five minutes, the girl got out of the car to find her boyfriend. Suddenly she sees a man hiding in the shadow of a tree. Frightened, she gets back into the car to quickly leave - but while she was getting in, she heard a very quiet creaking sound, followed by several more creaking sounds.
This continues for several seconds, but the girl eventually decides that she has no other choice and decides to leave. She presses the gas pedal, but can’t go anywhere - someone tied a cable from the car’s bumper to a tree growing nearby.
As a result, the girl presses the gas pedal again and hears a loud scream. She gets out of the car and finds her boyfriend hanging from a tree. As it turned out, the creaking sounds were made by his shoes dragging along the roof of the car.
8. Woman with a torn mouth 
In Japan and China, there is a legend about the girl Kuchisake-Onna, also known as the woman with the torn mouth. Some say she was the wife of a samurai. One day, she cheated on her husband with a young and handsome man. When the husband returned, he discovered her betrayal, and in a rage he took his sword and cut her mouth from ear to ear.
Some say that the woman was cursed - she will never die, and still walks around the world so that people can see the terrible scar on her face and feel sorry for her. Some claim that they saw a beautiful young girl who asked them: “Am I beautiful?” And when they answered positively, she tore off her mask and showed a terrible wound. Then she repeated her question - and anyone who stopped considering her beautiful would face a tragic death.
There are two morals to this story: it costs nothing to give a compliment, and honesty is not the best approach in all situations.
7. Bridge of the Crying Child
According to this legend, a couple was driving home from church with their child and arguing about something. It was raining heavily, and soon they had to cross a flooded bridge. As soon as they drove onto the bridge, it turned out that there was much more water than they thought, and the car was stuck - they decided that they had to go for help. The woman remained waiting, but got out of the car for a reason that one can only guess about.
When she turned away from the car, she suddenly heard her child crying loudly. She returned to the car and discovered that her child had been swept away by the water. According to the same legend, if you are on the same bridge, you can still hear a child crying there (the location of the bridge, of course, is unknown).
6 Alien Abduction of Zanfretta 
The story of the kidnapping of Fortunato Zanfretta has become one of the most famous urban legends in Italy over the past few decades.
According to his own stories (originally made under hypnosis), Zanfretta was abducted by aliens Dragos from the planet Teetonia, and over the course of several years (1978-1981) he was repeatedly abducted several times by the same group from another planet. No matter how terrifying and creepy this story may sound, if we take into account the words of Zanfretta, spoken by him during a hypnosis session, we can evaluate the intentions of the aliens from an optimistic point of view:
“I know that you want to fly more often... no, you can’t fly to Earth, people will be scared of what you look like. You can't become our friends. Please fly away."
Zanfretta has perhaps provided more details about his alien abduction than any other person in history - his detailed accounts can make even the most ardent skeptic wonder if there is some truth to it. Until this day, the Zanfretta case remains one of the most interesting and mysterious "secret files".
5. White Death
This story is about a little girl from Scotland who hated life so much that she wanted to destroy everything connected with her. Finally, she decided to commit suicide, and soon after, her family discovered what she had done.
In a terrible coincidence, all members of her family died a few days later, their limbs torn off. Legend says that when you hear about the White Death, the ghost of a little girl may find you and knock on your door many times. Each knock gets louder until the man opens the door, after which she kills him so that he will not tell anyone else about her existence. Her main task is to make sure no one knows about her.
Like most urban legends, this story is most likely the product of the unbridled imagination of a modern Aesop.
4. Black Volga
According to rumors, on the streets of Warsaw in the 1960s, a black Volga was often spotted - in which people who kidnapped children were sitting. According to legend (no doubt aided by Western propaganda), Soviet officers rode around Moscow in the black Volga in the mid-1930s, kidnapping young, pretty girls to satisfy the sexual needs of high-ranking Soviet comrades. According to other versions of this legend, vampires, mystical priests, Satanists, human traffickers and even Satan himself lived in the Volga.
According to different versions of the legend, children were kidnapped in order to use their blood as a treatment for rich people from different parts of the world suffering from leukemia. Naturally, none of these versions were ever confirmed.
3. Greek soldier
This lesser-known legend tells of a Greek soldier who returned home after World War II to marry his bride. Unfortunately for him, he was captured by his compatriots with enemy political beliefs, tortured for five weeks and then killed. In the early 1950s, mainly in northern and central Greece, stories circulated of an attractive Greek soldier in uniform who would appear and quickly disappear, seducing beautiful widows and virgins with one goal - to give them a child.
Five weeks after the child was born, the man disappeared forever - leaving a note on the table in which he explained that he was returning from the world of the dead so that he could have sons who could avenge his murder.
2. Elisa Day
In medieval Europe, there lived a young girl named Eliza Day, whose beauty was like the wild roses growing by the river - bloody and red. One day a young man came to town and instantly fell in love with Eliza. They met for three days. On the first day he came to her house. On the second day, he brought her one red rose and asked her to meet where wild roses grow. On the third day, he took her to the river, where he killed her. The terrible man waited until she turned away from him, after which he took a stone and, whispering “All beauty must die,” killed her with one blow to the head. He put a rose in her teeth and pushed her body into the river. Some people claim to have seen her ghost wandering along the river bank, holding a single rose in her hand and blood streaming from her head.
Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave have a very beautiful song on the theme of this legend - “Where The Wild Roses Grow”:
1. Well to Hell
In 1989, Russian scientists drilled a well in Siberia to a depth of approximately 14.5 kilometers. The drill fell into a cavity in the earth's crust, and scientists lowered several devices into it to figure out what was going on. The temperature there exceeded 1000 degrees Celsius, but the real shock was what they heard on the recording.
Only 17 terrifying seconds of sound were recorded before the microphone melted. Many of the scientists, convinced that they had heard the cries of the damned from hell, quit their jobs - or so the story goes. Those who remained were even more shocked that night. A stream of luminescent gas shot out from the well, transforming into the shape of a giant winged demon, and then the words “I have won” could be read in the lights. Although the story is currently considered fiction, there are many people who believe it actually happened - the urban legend "The Well to Hell" is told to this day.
Incredible facts
People have been making up legends and tales ever since they discovered communication. Despite some true facts, most of the terrible legends still remain fiction. However, chilling urban legends can often turn out to be true.
Sometimes turning a tragic event into a legend helps people cope with grief, as well as protect the younger generation from realizing the reality of what is happening.
In this article we have collected for you the creepiest urban legends based on real events.
City's legends
Faceless Charlie
Legend:
Children living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania love to tell the story of Faceless Charlie, also known as the Green Man. It is believed that Charlie was a factory worker who was disfigured in a horrific accident, some say it was caused by acid, some say it was caused by a power line.
Some versions of the story claim that this incident caused his skin to turn green, but all versions have in common that Charlie's face was so disfigured that it lost all features. According to legend, he wanders in the dark through depressing places, such as the old abandoned train tunnel in South Park, also known as the Green Man's Tunnel.
Over the years, curious teenagers have visited this tunnel in search of traces of Faceless Charlie. Many claimed that they felt a slight electrical voltage and had trouble starting their car after calling No-Face. Others said they saw the slight glow of his green skin in a tunnel or along a country road at night.
Reality:
Unfortunately, this tragic story contains the lion's share of truth. The legend of Faceless Charlie appeared due to the fact that he had a very real prototype - Raymond Robinson. In 1919, Robinson, who was 8 years old at the time, was playing with a friend near a bridge that carried high-voltage tram tracks.
Raymond suffered horrific injuries after accidentally touching a power line. As a result of the blow, he lost his nose, both eyes and an arm, but survived. He spent the rest of his long life - 74 years - withdrawn into himself, and only went out for walks at night, but he reciprocated people's friendly calls to him.
Killer in the attic
Legend:
This chilling story appeared many years ago. It tells the story of a family who are unaware that a dangerous intruder has taken up residence in their home and has been secretly living in their attic for weeks. Things are lost or moved, and suspicious objects appear in the trash. They joke sweetly about the brownie until the cruel killer who lives next door kills them in their sleep.
The worst thing about this legend is that it would seem to be quite possible - and this is in fact so.
Reality:
This story begins in March 1922 on a German farm called Hinterkaifeck. The owner, Andreas Gruber, began to notice that things in the house periodically disappeared and were not in their right place. His family heard footsteps in the house at night, and Andreas himself, on the eve of the tragedy, noticed other people’s footprints in the snow, but after examining the house and territory, he found no one.
At the end of March, the man who left these traces came down from the attic and brutally killed six inhabitants of the farm - the owner, his wife, their daughter, her two children aged 2 and 7 and their maid with a hoe. Their bodies were discovered only 4 days later, and it turned out that at that time someone was caring for livestock. The identity of the perpetrator has not yet been established.
Legends
Night doctors
Legend:
Stories about night doctors in the past were often heard from slave owners who used them to intimidate slaves so that they would not escape. The essence of the legend is that there were certain doctors who operated at night, kidnapping black workers to use them in their terrible experiments.
Night doctors caught people on the streets and took them to their medical institutions to torture, kill, dismember and cut out their organs.
Reality:
This terrible story has a very real continuation. Throughout the 19th century, grave robbing was a major problem, and the African American population was unable to protect either their deceased relatives or themselves. Additionally, medical students actually performed surgeries on living members of the African American community.
In 1932, the Alabama State Health Service and Tuskegee University launched a program to study syphilis. No matter how terrible it may sound, 600 African-American men were taken for the experiment. 399 of them already had syphilis, and 201 did not.
They were given free food and a guarantee to protect their grave after death, but the program lost funding without telling participants anything about their terrible illness. The researchers sought to study the mechanisms of the disease and continued to monitor patients. They were told that they were being treated for a minor blood disease.
The patients did not know they had syphilis or that they needed penicillin to treat it. The scientists refused to give any information about the medications or the condition of their patients.
This story, seasoned with slave owners riding horses at night in white clothes, has long instilled fear and awe of the legend in black people.
Alice Murders
Legend:
This is a fairly young urban legend from Japan. It says that between 1999 and 2005, a series of brutal murders occurred in Japan. The victims' bodies were mutilated, their limbs were torn off, and a distinctive feature of all the murders was that next to each corpse the name "Alice" was written in the victim's blood.
Police also found one playing card at each of the grisly crime scenes. The first victim was found in the forest, and parts of her body were strung on the branches of various trees. The second victim's vocal cords were torn out. The third victim, a teenage girl, had her skin severely burned, her mouth cut, her eyes torn out, and a crown sewn to her head. The killer's last victims were two little twins who were given lethal injections while they were sleeping.
It is alleged that in 2005, police arrested a man who was found wearing a jacket from one of the victims, but they were unable to link him to any of the murders. The man claimed that the jacket was given to him as a gift.
Reality:
In fact, such killings have never happened in Japan. However, shortly before the appearance of this legend, a maniac was operating in Spain, who was called the Card Killer. In 2003, all the Madrid police forces were sent to catch the man responsible for 6 brutal murders and 3 attempted murders. Each time he left a playing card on the body of the murdered man. Authorities were at a loss - there was no connection between the victims or an obvious motive.
All that was known was that they were dealing with a psychopath who chose his victims at random. He would never have been caught if one day he himself had not confessed to the police. The card killer turned out to be Alfredo Galan Sotillo. During the trial, Alfredo changed his testimony several times, refusing to confess and claiming that the Nazis forced him to confess to the murders. Despite this, the killer was sentenced to 142 years in prison.
Scary urban legends
The Legend of Cropsy
Legend:
Among the residents of Staten Island, the legend of Corpsey has been circulating for several decades. It's about a crazed ax murderer who escapes from an old hospital and is hiding in the tunnels underneath the abandoned Willbrook Public School. He comes out of hiding at night and hunts children: some claim that he has a hook instead of a hand, and some say that he wields an ax. The weapon does not matter to him, what matters to him is the result - to lure the child into the ruins of the old school and cut him into pieces.
Reality:
As it turned out, the crazy killer was very real. Andre Rand was directly responsible for the abduction of two children. He worked as a janitor at this very school until it closed. There, children with disabilities were kept in terrible conditions: they were beaten, insulted, and had neither normal food nor clothing. Homeless Rand returned to the tunnels under the school to continue the atrocities that previously reigned in this school.
Children began to go missing, and the body of 12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger was found in the woods near Rand's camp. He was accused of killing Jennifer and another missing child. It has not been fully proven that these murders were his doing, but the police were able to prove that he was involved in child abductions. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The whereabouts of the other missing children have still not been revealed.
The nanny and the killer on the second floor
Legend:
The story of the nanny and the killer hiding upstairs is undoubtedly a classic urban horror story. According to this legend, a girl working as a nanny for a rich family receives a creepy call. In almost all versions of the story, the caller asks the nanny if she has checked the children. The nanny calls the police, where it turns out that they are calling from the house where she and the children are. According to most versions, all three are found brutally murdered.
Reality:
The reason for the spread of this terrible story was the very real murder of a 12-year-old girl, Janet Christman, who was looking after three-year-old Gregory Romak. In March 1950, when this brutal crime occurred, there was a terrible thunderstorm in Columbia, Missouri. Janet had just put the child to bed when an unknown person entered the house and brutally raped and killed the girl.
For a long time, the main suspect was a certain Robert Mueller, also accused of another murder. Unfortunately, the evidence against Mueller was only circumstantial, but he was still accused of Janet's murder. After some time, he filed a lawsuit for illegal detention, the charges were dropped, and he left the city forever. After his departure, such crimes stopped.
Legends based on real events
Rabbit Man
Legend:
The story about the rabbit man appeared around the 70s of the last century and, like many urban legends, has several versions. The most common one concerns the events that occurred in 1904, when the local mental institution in Clifton, Virginia, closed and it became necessary to move patients to a new building. According to the classics of the genre, a transport with patients gets into a serious accident, most of them die, and the survivors break free. They are all successfully brought back...except for one - Douglas Griffin, sent to a mental hospital for the murder of his family on Easter Sunday.
Soon after his escape, exhausted and mutilated rabbit carcasses appear on the trees in the area. Some time later, local residents discover the body of Marcus Wallster hanging from the ceiling of a railroad underpass in the same terrible state as the rabbits before. The police tried to drive the madman into a corner, but he ran away and was hit by a train. Now his restless ghost wanders around and still hangs rabbit carcasses in the trees.
Some even claim to have seen the rabbit man himself, standing in the shadow of an underground passage. Locals believe that anyone who dares to enter the passage on Halloween night will be found dead the next morning.
Reality:
Fortunately, this creepy legend is just a legend, and there really was no crazy killer. There was no Douglas Griffin or Marcus Wallster. However, in Fairfax County there lived a man who had an unhealthy obsession with rabbits and terrorized local residents in the 70s of the last century.
He rushed at passers-by and chased them with a small hatchet in his hands. Some claimed that he once threw a hatchet through the window of a passing car. One incident occurred at the home of one of the local residents. The madman took an ax with a long handle and began to chop down the porch of the unfortunate man's house. He ran away before the police arrived and no one still knows who he is or what motivated him.
Hook
Legend:
The legend of Hook is perhaps the most common of all urban horror stories. It has several versions, each more terrible than the previous one, and the most famous one tells about a couple making love in a parked car. The radio broadcast is suddenly interrupted to inform listeners of terrible news - a brutal killer wielding a hook has escaped, and now he is hiding in the very park where the lovers are.
The girl, having heard the news, asks her lover to leave there as quickly as possible. The guy is annoyed by this, but they get ready and he takes her home. When they arrive, they find a bloody hook hanging from the passenger side door handle.
Reality:
Whether the couple makes it home without incident, or the girl is horrified to hear her lover's fingers touching the roof of the car as his bloody body hangs from a tree, the story is not accidental. In the late 1940s, a small and peaceful town was rocked by a series of horrific murders. The culprit was dubbed the Moonlight Murder, but was never found.
At night he killed young people in parked cars. Frightened residents returned home long before the curfew announced by the authorities. The bloody crimes stopped as quickly as they began, and the Moon Killer disappeared into the night.
Dog boy
Legend:
In the town of Quitman, Arkansas, there has long been a legend about Dog Boy. Locals claimed that it was about an evil and very cruel little boy who loved to torture defenseless animals, and then completely turned on his parents. After the boy's death, his ghost haunted the house where he killed his parents, in the form of a half-man, half-dog, instilling horror and fear in people. People often notice his outline in the room where he kept the animals he abused.
Witnesses describe it as a large, furry creature that resembles a dog with glowing cat-like eyes. Those who pass by his house notice that he is closely watching them from the window of the house, and some even claim that an incomprehensible creature on all fours was chasing them down the street.
Reality:
Once upon a time, in an old house at 65 Mulberry Street, there lived an angry and cruel boy named Gerald Bettis. His favorite pastime was catching neighbors' animals. He had a separate room where he brought the unfortunate. There he tortured and brutally killed them. Over time, his cruelty began to manifest itself towards his elderly parents. He was huge and overweight.
They say that it was he who killed his father, but no one has been able to prove that he provoked his fall from the stairs. After his father's death, he continued to abuse his mother, keeping her locked up and starving her. Law enforcement agencies intervened and managed to save the unfortunate mother. Some time later, she testified against him for growing and using marijuana. He was sent to prison, where he died of an overdose.
Legends that turned out to be true
Black water
Legend:
This fairly well-known story begins with an ordinary family buying a new house. Everything is fine with them until they open the tap and black, cloudy, foul-smelling water comes out. After checking the water tank, they discover a rotting body. It is unknown when this legend was born, but a similar story really took place.
Reality:
Elisa Lam's body was found in a water tank at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, California in 2013. Her death remains a mystery and her killer has not been found. By the time guests began complaining about spoiled water and her body was discovered, it had been decomposing in the tank for a week.
The most terrible legends
Bloody Mary
Legend:
According to the creepy folk belief about Bloody Mary, in order to summon her evil spirit, you need to light candles, turn off the lights and whisper her name while looking intently into the mirror. When she comes, she can do a number of harmless things and some terrible things.
Reality:
According to psychologists, if you look closely in the mirror for a long time, you can see someone else looking back at you, so most likely the legend of Bloody Mary did not appear out of nowhere. Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo calls this phenomenon the “illusion of someone else’s face.”
According to Caputo, if you stare long and hard at your reflection in a mirror, your field of vision will begin to distort and the outlines and edges will become blurred—your face will no longer look the same. The same illusion manifests itself when a person sees images and silhouettes in inanimate objects.
Have you ever wondered why the stories we tell each other around the fire make us shake with fear? The truth is that there is always some truth to them. These stories are believable enough to keep us afraid to sleep for the rest of the night.
Man by nature is inclined to come up with creepy stories, but there is no smoke without fire. They all had to be inspired by something, be it pure imagination or real events. And sometimes urban legends created as pranks turn into something more - real stories with real observations. Do urban monsters really come to life only through the power of human imagination, or have they always existed and we have only recently become aware of them? Either way, here are 10 terrifying urban legends that will probably give you nightmares.
The noise that comes from within... children
Perhaps this creepy story is just an urban legend. One thing is for sure: “The Sound That Comes From Within Children” (by Ed Cann) is one of the most mysterious works in the history of writing. No one really knows what exactly Ed Kann's creepy story is about, but according to one critical review and several online mentions, the content was so scary that it was banned shortly after it was published. The only review of this creation notes that if more people read this story, the entire horror genre would have to be reconsidered. But, alas, the author, like his story, disappeared from the face of the Earth. The mystery remains unsolved!
Rake is the fruit of your nightmares
The Internet has given us a whole new genre of true horror stories. It usually starts with one post, idea, or comment and then expands beyond that post into a full-blown urban legend with photos, documented sightings, and all sorts of details that make the idea increasingly real. 
This happened with Rake, a two-meter humanoid who usually crawls on all fours. He has pale skin and a face without any signs of a mouth or nose, but he does have three green eyes. They say he can be seen in suburban areas, but Rake will not attack unless you approach him. But if you decide to approach, he will begin to attack, opening his mouth, which looks more like a crack in his face, with dozens of blunt teeth inside.
Goodtimes virus
These are not very fun days for hackers: they can't really do much damage, given all the antivirus software installed on modern computers. However, back in the 90s, when users did not have sophisticated programs to protect their computers, they found themselves helpless in the face of “evil” on the Internet. Hackers were something like web pirates who caused chaos and despair. Have you ever heard of viruses that can melt your entire computer? 
And this is not just a turn of phrase, viruses could actually destroy not only software, but also hardware. To make matters worse, this virus replicated very quickly, sending itself to all users who are in your address book. Just imagine how many people suffered! The Goodtimes virus was sent via email when people were naive enough to open a message warning of the supposed attack. This virus managed to destroy hundreds of computers.
Ted's Caving Page Blog
If you think that modern Internet users are so gullible that they are ready to believe any rumor about the death of a celebrity or about the release of a new movie after viewing just a few posts and photos edited in Photoshop, then try to imagine how gullible people were back then. the internet was something new. Why would anyone lie on the Internet, right? But then people did the same as now. 
The blog Ted's Caving Page began as an innocent project with photographs of various caves, their exits and descriptions of Ted's experiences in caving. However, things got weird when Ted and his friends found a "secret cave" that wasn't on any map. Of course, he and his friends wanted to explore all the corners of the cave with its creepy hieroglyphs. The blog ended rather abruptly after Ted and one of his colleagues began to suffer from nightmares for several weeks. They decided to go into the cave one last time, armed with knives, and this is where the story ends. It's really well thought out and feels totally real!
Goatman
Most modern urban horror stories were created on the Internet, but some have deeper roots, going back to Native American cultural heritage. 
This is the story of Anansi and his meeting with Goatman. According to this story, Anansi and some of his friends decided to go camping south into the Alabama desert. There they met the creepy Goatman, who kept up with them day and night, spoke gibberish and moved in an incomprehensible way. This creature did not kill the travelers, but it affected their minds, causing them to suffer from paranoia and attack each other. This story takes spooky storytelling to a whole new level!
The Blair Witch Project
Meet the forerunner of all horror stories that virtually created the genre itself. It's a marketing campaign that operates primarily online, presenting a wealth of compelling "evidence" that the Blair Witch Witch is a real person and not an elaborate movie character. The company spent $25 million on marketing when the film's budget was only $20,000, but the idea itself really paid off! People believed they had found footage that was the premise of the film, and that it was what made it legendary. The Blair Witch Project featured three film producers who went missing during the film's production and revealed many other creepy "true" details. The whole project was so brilliantly thought out that we can't help but wonder: maybe it was all real?
Smith Sisters
Sure, so-called chain letters can be very annoying, but we don't usually think of them as creepy. However, this story will make you reconsider. She talks about a boy, John Smith, who loved to send such emails. But one day he received a letter from the mysterious Smith girls, who claimed to be his lost sisters. 
In order to prove the veracity of their story, they sent him some old photographs that showed them in an old house. The boy was scared because he did not know that he had any sisters, especially dead ones (it was obvious to him that they were sending him letters from the “other side”). The Smith sisters urged him to check out the old wardrobe upstairs that he didn't know existed. Of course, the boy did what he was asked to do, but after that no one saw him again. Police found only a few carvings inside the cabinet: one labeled "Lisa and Sarah, 1993" and the other "John, 2007." So it's worth making sure you don't forget to turn on your spam filter to protect yourself from any crazy emails!
Slenderman
Each of us has heard at least once about the Thin Man, or Slender Man, and knows that he is a completely fictional character. But that doesn't make this creature any less scary. Who knows, perhaps the power of our imagination could revive it? It seems that Slenderman has been around for centuries: that's what we are supposed to believe after watching the series and playing many games with this terrifying creature. After some time, no one will remember that he was a product of our imagination, and the Thin Man will become an actual part of urban legends. 
Slenderman first appeared as a dark figure in an old black and white image created using Photoshop. But then more and more photographs appeared until there was a veritable avalanche of evidence that this creature was real. It plays on our fear of the dark and all the things that lurk in it. We've all seen shadows when we turn around on a narrow stretch of poorly lit road at night, and we thought there was someone there, didn't we? You definitely saw someone. Perhaps it was Slenderman.
Russian sleep experiment
Creepy experiments carried out by the military always impress people. And they will likely remain one of the most feared topics for decades to come. There are real stories, such as the infamous Japanese Group 731, or the CIA's MKULTRA program. Therefore, it would not be surprising that the Russian military also conducted experiments on harmless citizens. 
According to this legend, people were locked in cells and given drugs that prevented them from sleeping. This was done to see how long they could live without sleep. People remained in a locked room for months and slowly went crazy. After some time, the cells were opened, but there was no noise in the room filled with dozens of people. It turned out that about half of the experiment participants were dead, and the rest ate their flesh. They demanded more medication so they could never sleep. This is really heavy stuff!
Normal porn for normal people
Here we are again dealing with spam, but this time the story takes an incredibly sinister turn. You receive a link to a site with a rather unusual slogan that reads: “A site dedicated to the elimination of deviant sexuality.” You end up reading a crazy rant, but some of the words in it turn out to be links to videos. 
It shows fairly harmless activities: an owner feeding a dog, a guy making himself a peanut butter sandwich and eating it, a girl playing the violin. However, in each of these videos, horrific and violent sexual acts occur, but are only visible as a glimpse on a reflective surface. From this point on, the video gets weirder. We won't spoil all the "fun" and if you're interested in this video, just check it out! If you dare.
Hello, it's me again! Those who have read my stories probably remember me. Now I'm interested in the stories and legends of other countries... Scary ones, of course... Hee hee... Let's start with Japan... Let's go...
DOLL LIKA-CHAN
The Lika-Chan doll is a very popular doll in Japan. She is the Japanese equivalent of a Barbie doll. This doll was so popular that the manufacturing company decided to create a telephone line to advertise its products.
Children could call and talk to Lika-Chan. In reality, they simply heard a previously recorded message, but very quickly rumors spread that the children who spoke with Lika-Chan heard creepy words, such as: “I am coming to your house to kill you!”
This rumor gave birth to several urban legends:
Hello! This is Lika-chan!
One day, a young girl was cleaning her room. While sorting out her supplies, she came across the Lika-Chan doll, which she loved very much when she was a child. However, she decided that she was too old to play with dolls, so she took the doll out and threw it away with the other trash.
Or here are a couple more stories about Liku-chan
One day, a young girl was cleaning her room. While sorting out her supplies, she came across the Lika-Chan doll, which she loved very much when she was a child. However, she decided that she was too old to play with dolls, so she took the doll out and threw it away with the other trash.
After some time, the girl and her parents moved to another city. One day, she came home from school. Her parents were still at work. As soon as she entered home, the telephone rang in the hallway.
The girl hung up, thinking that someone was playing a prank on her. A little later, the phone rang again.
She hung up, and this time she was worried. After a while, the phone rang again.
The girl hung up again. This time she was scared. She wanted her parents to return home quickly. A few minutes later the phone rang again.
The girl was horrified, but continued to assure herself that this was someone’s bad joke. She went to the window and looked out from behind the curtain, but there was no one on the street. The girl sighed with relief.
The phone rang for the last time, and when she picked it up, she heard: “Hello, it's Lika-Chan! I'm standing behind you!
Here are a couple more stories about Lika-chan
Three-legged Lika-chan
According to legend, the company that produced the doll made a mistake in one of the batches. They accidentally made a doll with three legs. The dolls had already been taken to stores, and only there the error was discovered.
Although the company hastily recalled a batch of three-legged dolls, some of them have already been sold.
One evening, a young woman was walking in the park. She needed to go to the restroom, so she walked into a public restroom and entered a stall. Sitting on the toilet, she noticed what was on the floor next to her.
It was a Lika-Chan doll.
The woman wondered where the doll came from in such a place. Maybe someone threw it away? She felt sorry for the doll and picked it up. What she saw horrified her.
Lika-Chan had three legs.
Two were normal flesh-colored, but the third was abnormally deformed, hairy, and a strange purple color.
The woman was so amazed that she accidentally dropped the doll and it fell face down on the floor.
Then, the woman saw with horror how the doll's head slowly turned towards her.
The doll opened its tiny mouth and said, “My name is Lika-Chan and I am cursed. I'm cursed. I'm cursed..."
The woman ran away from there in horror. But since then, this voice began to haunt her and continued to whisper right in her ear: “My name is Lika-Chan, and I am cursed. I'm cursed. I'm cursed..."
Someone kept calling this woman on her phone, and on the other end of the line she heard: “My name is Lika-Chan, and I am cursed. I'm cursed. I'm cursed..."
Finally, the woman could not bear it. She was going crazy. So she pierced her own eardrums so she could no longer hear that terrible voice.
There are other stories associated with the three-legged Lika-Chan.
In one of them, a schoolgirl finds a doll in the school toilet, and it tells her: “My name is Lika-Chan. Let's play hide and seek." And before the schoolgirl had time to answer, the doll took out a knife and killed the girl, saying, striking: “You’re caught!”
In another story, the doll's third leg turns out to be made of human flesh, and the doll says, “My name is Lika-Chan, and I am looking for the owner of this leg!”
In another version, the girl finds Lika-Chan in the toilet. The doll with the third purple leg disgusts the girl, and she washes it away. A few days later, the girl has an accident and her leg is amputated. Lying in her hospital bed, she is horrified to discover that a nasty, purple leg is beginning to grow from her stump. Eventually, the leg grows and kills the girl.
Another story about the Lika-Chan doll with three legs is a scary story when Lika-Chan appears near your bed at night. You are sleeping, and she is holding a butcher knife in her hands and waiting for you to notice her presence. When you open your eyes, she attacks and cuts off your legs.
KUN-KUN!
is a creepy urban legend from Japan about a mystical phenomenon that is sometimes observed in rural areas. The Japanese call this phenomenon “Kun Kun”, which means something twisting, rocking and spinning. They say you can't look at it or you'll go crazy. This phenomenon is described by a white, incomprehensible something that moves back and forth in the distance. Nobody knows what it looks like up close because everyone who saw it up close went crazy.
When I was little, my parents took me and my older brother to my grandparents. We didn't see them often because they lived in the village, Akita.
As soon as we arrived at our grandparents' house, we immediately ran outside to play. The air here was much fresher and cleaner than in the city. We walked along the rice fields, enjoying the vast open spaces.
That day the sun was high in the sky and there was no wind. It was hot and stuffy, and after a while I started to get tired.
And suddenly my brother suddenly stopped. He saw something in the distance.
“What are you looking at?” I asked.
“There is something there,” he replied.
There were only rice fields around, and it was completely deserted. I rubbed my eyes, but couldn't figure out what it was. In the distance, over the fields, there was a white something the size of a person. It moved and wriggled as if driven by the wind.
“Maybe it was a scarecrow?” I said.
“It wasn’t scary,” my brother replied. “A scarecrow can’t move like that.”
“Maybe this is a sheet?” I said.
“No, it’s not a sheet,” he replied. “There are no other houses here. Besides, there is no wind, but it still moves and wriggles. What is it?"
I had a strange and unpleasant sensation in the pit of my stomach.
My brother ran back home and when he returned he brought binoculars.
"ABOUT! “Can I take a look?” I asked, excitedly.
I tried to grab the binoculars, but he pushed me away.
“No, I’m first!” he said with a grin. "I'm older. You can watch after me.”
As soon as my brother brought the binoculars to his eyes, I noticed how his expression changed. It turned pale and he instantly began to sweat. He dropped the binoculars to the ground and I could see the fear in his eyes.
"What is this?" – I asked, nervously.
My brother answered slowly.
“There it is... There it is... There it is...”
Without saying a word, he turned and walked back home. Something was wrong. With shaking hands, I bent down and picked up the binoculars, but I was too scared to look through them.
In the distance, the white object continued to squirm.
At that moment, my grandfather ran up to me.
“What are you doing with binoculars?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I replied. “Just looking at the white thing over there.”
“What?” he shouted. “You shouldn't look there!”
He snatched the binoculars from my hands.
“Did you see this?” he asked angrily. “Did you look at this through binoculars?”
“No,” I said, shrinking. "Not yet …"
My grandfather breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay,” he said. "This is good … "
Not knowing why, but he sent me home.
When I entered the kitchen, everyone was crying. My brother was rolling on the floor, laughing like crazy. He was lying on his back, and his body was twisting and twisting... just like that white thing in the distance.
I couldn't understand what was happening. It was terrible to see him like that. I burst into tears.
I no longer had a brother. He's gone crazy.
The next day, our parents decided to take us home. My grandparents were standing on the porch waving as the car pulled away. I sat in the backseat with my brother, wiping tears from my eyes.
My brother was still laughing like a mental patient. We had to tie him up to stop him squirming. His face was distorted by a wide smile. He seemed happy, but when I looked into his eyes, I realized that he was crying. A chill ran down my spine. His cheeks were wet from tears, but he still continued to laugh and laugh...
"HOW TO GET TO ANOTHER WORLD..."
To play this game you need to find a building that is at least 10 stories high and has an elevator.
Step 1: Call the elevator to the 1st floor. (The elevator must be empty and you must enter alone)
Step 2: Drive through the floors in the following order - 4th floor, 2nd floor, 6th floor, 2nd floor, 10th floor. (If someone enters at this time, the ritual will not work).
Step 3: When you arrive on the 10th floor, press the 5th floor button without exiting the elevator.
Step 4: When you reach the 5th floor, the door will open and a young woman will enter the elevator with you. (Don't talk to her).
Step 5: Once she enters the elevator, press the 1st floor button.
Step 6: Instead of descending to the 1st floor, the elevator will rise again to the 10th floor. (While the elevator is rising, you will have one last chance to end the game. If you press the button for another floor, the ritual will not work. But once the elevator passes the 9th floor, there will be no turning back).
There is only one way to understand whether the ritual worked or not. If you find yourself in another world, you will be the only person in it.
To return to your world, you need to perform the ritual in reverse order. However, there is no guarantee that this will work.
Some Japanese claim that they were able to perform this ritual. This is how they describe the other world:
They say that the building looks exactly the same as the one you entered at the beginning of the ritual, only the surroundings are dark, the lights are not working, and in the distance you can see the red sky. There is not a single living creature there except you. Some say that no electronics work in this world (phones, cameras, etc.), but others say that everything works.
Additionally, some people say that returning to the real world is more difficult for several reasons. You may be disoriented and forget which elevator you took. Also, somehow the elevator moves away from you as you approach it.
I LIKED THIS STORY BELOW MORE THAN THE OTHERS.
"BEEP BEEP"
There has been a terrible plane crash in Japan, and a detective named Hamasaki has been assigned to investigate the case. There was only one survivor among the passengers, a 13-year-old girl named Takai-chan. She was horribly injured in a plane crash and was in a coma.
For a long time, doctors believed that she would not be able to recover. However, after a few days, she miraculously regained consciousness. She was still very weak and could not speak. The doctors made it possible to communicate with her using electronic communications. They attached electrodes to her teeth. Whenever she ground her teeth and the electrodes touched each other, a beep would sound.
The detective needed to ask her a few questions, so he used a simple code to communicate with her.
Two beeps meant “yes”, one beep meant “No”.
Takayo-chan was still very weak, and the doctors didn't want her to worry. For this reason, the detective was allowed to be in the room with her, but without strangers. He was not allowed to record his conversation with her on a video camera, but was allowed to use a voice recorder.
Below is the text of the recorded conversation between the detective and the girl:
“Good morning, Takayo-chan...”
(Silence)
“I am Detective Hamasaki. Are you feeling well enough to talk to me?”
“I need to ask you some questions about the car accident.”
“When the plane took off, did you notice anything unusual?”
“Did the other passengers behave normally?”
“Something happened while the plane was in the air, didn’t it?”
Beep Beep Beep Beep
"It means yes?"
Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep
“I'm so sorry, I know this is painful for you. Do you want to stop?”
"OK. Then can we continue?”
“Before the accident, did the plane start to shake?”
“Did you notice anything unusual?”
“Did something scare you?”
Beep Beep Beep Beep
"What's happened?"
Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep
“You're shaking. Takayo-chan, calm down... I understand, I understand... Something scared you very much. Rest for a minute. Relax. We'll continue, okay?"
“Could there be something wrong with the engine?”
“Did you hear an explosion or something?”
“Did you see something in the window?”
“Did you see something crash into the plane?”
“What did you see through the window?”
“Takayo-chan, are you afraid? It's okay now, you don't need to be afraid. You're safe here. Are you in the hospital. No one will harm you here.”
Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep
"Calm down. Are you all right? Can we continue?”
“What could you see in the window? Maybe it was another plane?
“Maybe there was something wrong with the plane’s wing?”
“Is the wing broken?”
“Did something fall off the wing?”
“Did something fall on the wing?”
“Is anything else broken?”
"Window?"
“Did something break the window?”
“Did something fly through the window?”
“Is this something... Was this what caused the terrible wounds that were found on the other passengers?”
“Scratches all over the body, Takayo-chan... Did something do them?”
Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep
“We found drool on the wounds... Did it have a mouth?”
“Did it have fangs? Or sharp teeth?
“Was it furry?”
“With eyes?”
“Did he have arms and legs?”
“Was it small? Less than a child?”
“The remaining passengers... Their internal organs disappeared... Were they eaten from the inside?”
“How did it get into their bodies? Through the hole?
“Did it...Did it gnaw a hole through its stomach?”
"No? Did it go through the mouth?”
“And when it came out, it... gnawed its way through the stomach?”
“Have you seen how it eats others?”
Beep Beep Beep Beep
“And your parents?”
Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep
“And it left deep scratches on the bodies?”
Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep
“It ate everyone, but... left you alive?”
(Silence)
“Why, Takayo-chan? Why are you still alive?”
(Silence)
“Takayo-chan? Are you okay? You look pale. Can you hear me?"
(Silence)
“What's wrong with you, Takayo-chan? What's wrong?
(Silence)
"Are you okay? You look really bad.”
(Silence)
“Are you bleeding? Is this blood? Takayo-chan, you're bleeding."
(Silence)
"Oh my God! Oh God no! Help! Help! Help! … “
Twenty minutes later, a nurse came into the room and discovered a terrible scene. The walls were splattered with blood and the half-eaten corpse of Detective Hamasaki lay on the floor. A thirteen-year-old girl, Takayo-chan, was lying in her bed. There was a hole in her stomach and all her internal organs were gone.
This recording is the only police evidence in the mysterious murder of Detective Hamasaki and Takayo-chan. The government had to work hard to hush up this matter. The exact details of what happened on the plane and in the hospital room are still shrouded in mystery.
CHECK OUT WHICH STORY YOU LIKED MOST. I WILL BE INTERESTED! SOON I WILL ADD MORE LEGENDS OF JAPAN AND MORE! AS WELL AS OTHER COUNTRIES!