Creepypasta

People just love getting scared. We adore getting the chills and being in complete terror. Self-inducing the state is a very old practice. People wrote horror stories from the oldest times and they are a huge part of literature. Who enjoys reading something without any element of dramatism or tension? Since the Internet appeared a lot has changed. People started blogs or websites. Books are slowly being replaced with "ebooks". Debates take place on forums and you can share any kind of personal stories and there will always be someone interested.

Have you ever heard the term "creepypasta"? If not, that's okay. In slang language, a creepypasta is a horror story published on the internet. Usually, they are urban legends or personal experiences shared on forums or on different websites. They are "copied and pasted" everywhere on the internet by different users. They started getting extremly popular in 2010, when Slenderman, a creepypasta published on a forum got it's own videogame. I started browsing the web in 2006. I got the hang of everything really quickly and my favorite thing to do was search different types of forums. Users talked about everything I could think of and I was fascinated about the huge quantity of information.

After a while, I browsed only 2 or 3 forums. One of them was a local forum, the users being citizens of my small town. The admin posted news everyday and people expressed their opinions freely, hidden under different kinds of usernames. It became very popular and the mayor himself presented the idea of the online forum in a public manifestation. For me, the news were pretty boring. Nothing ever happens in our small town. They were about politics, school projects or the schedules for the theatre. I looked over the topics from the forum because users were very open and always shared their honest opinions. I subscribed to it and I always received an email when some new topic was added. Last spring, I logged in to check my email. Some topics were added to the local forum and I clicked to read their titles. One of them caught my attention. " Cave Robinson - completely closed ". There was only a little bit of information in the admin post, about some huge rock that blocked the only entry in the cave and the fact that the authorities decided to let nature do it's own way. 

The first reply was from an old user:

" I remember the cave as it was yesterday. You can't forget that kind of beauty. The floor of the cave was made of a sort of white, transparent granite, covered with fine sand, and from this, at intervals, there rose pillars of the same material, reaching right up to the roof. The vaulted roof itself was chiselled out in fantastic shapes which seemed to take the form of men or birds or animals, according to the angle at which the light from our torches fell on them: here and there massive crystals hung from the ceiling, many-sided, and of every conceivable shape. Every facet of them reflected again and again all the colours of the rainbow, so that the whole cave looked as if it was hung with diamonds. I am so sorry something so tragic happened in such a beautiful place. You shouldn't open it again. Ever "

" What are the coordonates?x I miss it" someone else replied.

" Wut happened there?? " 

" Is this near the old church? "

There were about 150 replies in a hour. I have never saw a topic on that forum as popular as this one. I kept scrolling down on the replies page. Everyone was asking information about the cave or sharing everything they knew about it. Some assumed it was near some old church, others wrote that it wasn't even in our area. I couldn't understand the desperation in their posts until I saw a reply by the first user:

" It was a long time ago but I remember it like it was yesterday. I don't understand how we managed to wash away the event. "

In the following lines of his post, he explained something that confused me. He said that in his teenage years, everybody used to hang around in that cave. It was simply beautiful and mistique. It was away from their parents. It was huge and full of corridors and passages. They spent their Friday evenings there, being fearless and ready to party under any circumstances. The story got confusing when he mentioned his classmate. He presented him as a reserved and very bullied kid. To spice things up, an older student thought about inviting Rick in the cave next friday evening. The weather was horrible and many of them decided to stay in. The user kept mentioning in his post his faith in God and how thankful he is for his protection. No one knew exactly what happened that friday night. Three boys and a girl went missing. One of the boys was Rick. Parents were shocked and for a while no one was allowed to go out when it was dark. Radio stations mentioned that only the local police got involved in the case. After some months, everyone accepted the idea that bad things do happen. The official information was that four teenagers got lost in an adventure in the deepest cave from our surroundings; bodies never found. Another user talked about Rick's poor family, family that founded the Corner Restaurant. His statement was supported by other entries. One mentioned the period of prosperity the Corner Restaurant. Scrolling down, I noticed the following entry:

"It is all obvious. My grandmother told me about it. Bad things happen everywhere. But this wasn't just bad luck. My grandmother knew Rick and his situation. What he did was expected."

Asked by other users to go on with the story, he explained in 2-3 sentences the fact that Rick tried to provide meat for his father's restaurant in any circumstances. He started with small animals he found dead on the road, neighbour's pets and he eventually thought of another sollution. The Corner Restaurant was very popular for a while, preparing the best steak and fries in the area. After a few months, it closed down and the owners moved abroad with the money they made in the bussines. Right now it's a big, dusty building that everyone ignores.

I spent my entire evening reading the replies from that topic. I was fascinated. When I went to bed, I told myself everything is a big lie. I laughed at the idea and fell asleep. Next morning, the topic was completely gone. The forum was full of basic stories again. "What's the weather like this week" was the most popular topic on the entire forum. That evening was a very long time ago. Starting with that evening, I am aware that the internet is hiding dark things. Everyone is hiding dark things. You can call them "stories" or "creepypastas", but what they really are is poor people's testimonials. Internet is a fascinating thing for such an old lady as me. I miss the Corner Restaurant and my maid dress. I ignored the event and lived in silence but I can't do this anymore. I feel death around me and it will not take me as a coward. I crave some Red Velvet Cupcakes. Our hidden recipe from The Corner Restaurant. I'm going to shop today for fresh ingredients. And in the evening, I'll ask my nephew to help me start a topic on the forum.