The Tapes

Hello. I haven’t posted to Newgrounds since 99 but a friend of mine mentioned that there was an event going on called the CreepyPasta Collab. I’ve always been a fan of scary stories, even the crappy ones. So I figured I'd share a story from my teenage years that got me even more interested in horror then I already was. Honestly, it was like a double edged sword at the time and seemed to pierce through my very soul.

I grew up pretty close to a shopping center. My Dad and I used to go there all the time. There was a barber shop my Dad used to go to all the time after work. Also, there was a Waffle house and we used to eat breakfast almost every morning. One of my favorite places to visit was a thrift shop that laid right in between the shops and the restaurant.

Even at the time, I wanna say 2002 maybe 2003, I was into old technology, mostly thanks to my Dad. We used to watch a bunch of old movies on video tapes together. Alien, The Exorcist, Jaws. You could say he introduced me to the horrer genre at an age that I was probably too young to witness but I was enthralled.

One day when I was about 13, we had finished up breakfast at the Waffle House and he decided to take me to the thrift store next door. I was stunned! There were tons of old machines and media scattered across even white shelves. The machines like VHS video players were antiquated but still so cool. It felt so magical to me at the time.

I found it strange to see a lot of the things my Dad used to show me when I was younger, in the store after only a few years. I told the grizzly cashier whose white counter was to the middle right of the store, that I was looking for something weird, something scary. It was October, after all. A good time to be unnerved. The cashier said that “there was a man who just ran into the building about an hour ago. He needed to get rid of some tapes he had. I asked the man how much he wanted to sell them for and he said that he’d give ‘em up for free, as long as he didn’t have to look at those damn tapes again.” The clerk lifted a small box from behind the counter and said in a joking tone that “whatever is on those tapes must be pretty rough if it scared the shit out of the guy!” The owner’s gruff laugh shook his entire rotund frame like a bowl of jelly and he said that since the owner of the tapes hadn’t put a price on them before he left that I could take them for free. I was elated but peering into the box, I noticed that the tapes looked homemade.

As I was walking home with a crisp autumn breeze in the air I remembered that some of my classmates at the time hade told me about this cool animation they found on a website called Newgrounds amd that it had just released on the website less than a month ago. They also had accounts on the site and wanted me to join.

My house was built in 1905 and we purchased it from an elderly couple who died there some years ago. I walked down the slanted driveway that led to an open garage and then to the white, framed front door I was all too familiar with. I took a right to enter my house. We had a small kitchen with unusual orange tiles. The rest of the floor was all mostly matted carpet, except for a small hallway in the back and two opposite facing dining rooms of differing sizes just past the kitchen. The color of the carpet was the type of ugly dark brownish tan you’d expect to see in a mud puddle after a heavy rain.

There was an equal sense of mysticism and unease that came with this old inherited house. A large wooden bookshelf here, a few plaid recliners there. I felt a sharp chill go down my spine walking through the living room which should have felt warm and nastalgic.

I decided to walk down to the basement later that night. The room was covered in a thick layer of dust. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years judging by the grime and old furniture laying up against the walls.There was a TV laying against the back wall on a small bookshelf with a VCR hooked up to it laying on the ground. I dusted them off, turned the TV on with the remote on top of it and put in the VHS simply labeled “One” in black marker on the outside label.

I saw a cold autumn forest as the cameraman walked up a steep hill. He said that he was trying to look for a mysterious cult in the woods and that he wanted to prove to his friends that “the cult wasn’t real.” He was clearly skeptical with his sarcastic tone. He kept talking to himself about how ridiculous the whole thing was as he climbed up the hill. When he reached the top he noticed that there seemed to be something glowing in the distance. Like an abnormally bright campfire. The Cameraman said that he was weirdly surprised and said that he’d check it out, before the tape cut off.

I found myself intrigued so decided to take out and play the next tape which was appropriately labeled number Two. The tape started with the cameraman hiding in a bush far away from what looked like some sort of satanic ritual. He nervously zoomed the camera in to reveal something that hasn't left my mind since.

There was a pile of skinned farm animals on a large arcane altar. The pig and chickens there looked like red fleshy balloons. The stench of animal blood was in the air. Neither I nor the man could make out what the cult leader was saying but suddenly as the camera zoomed in further and all the veins of the animals started to pulse. The blood and bones were coming alive! The cameraman described the air as being thick, dense and very hard to breathe in. He felt vomit rise in his throat. Evil abounded here. He ran as fast as he could before turning the camera off next to a secure tree as he panted with fear.

The third tape I pulled out felt hot to the touch. I dropped it from the unexpected heat. It felt like an oven. I quickly put the tape into the VCR but instead of any images, I was met with strange static, a red tint and ominous sounds. Distant moans and cries of pain, scratching and scraping. It sounded like murder and the sounds never stopped! The lightbulb above me started buzzing and flickering as it swayed fiercely back and forth on its string. The whole room felt like it was shaking from an earthquake but nothing was moving except for the light rapidly swinging. My heart was beating out of my chest. I quickly ejected the tape before things could get any scarier and ran upstairs as fast as I could to my room!

I logged online to Newgrounds and told my friends what happened. Of course they didn’t believe me so I decided to take my mind off it and watch some cartoons other people made.

My old account is long gone by now. I forgot my old code years ago. My therapist told me that I should be doing something more productive to keep my mind off of recent events in my personal life, so I made a new account to share this story and prove, at least to myself, that I’m not crazy. The cult tapes reside in our basement still and I haven't been down there since.

The End.