Decemystery (2024) 25: “We’re Gonna Be a Family Again Soon.”

 

When I made Decemystery 2024’s schedule, the plan was to have it be the biggest and best one ever, complete with stories that would leave you absolutely floored. This didn’t happen for reasons I’ve made abundantly clear throughout this month; I’ve bemoaned my mental health enough to where I’m sick of seeing the words get typed. Despite that, I still type them. Why? Don’t ask questions I can’t provide answers to, dear reader.

As a result of those issues, I uprooted the entire schedule but kept five of the original stories. The first was “The Triangle Creature,” which I only kept because of the name. Seriously, that name is amazing.

The second was “The Man From the Box,” which I was so close to not covering. Funnily enough, I also think it’s one of the main reasons why I fell behind schedule. It took a while to write, and while it was fun in hindsight, it also screwed me over badly.

Anyway, the third story was “bubbles.avi,” and I just now realized that I missed the opportunity to make a Bubble Buddy joke in the write-up. You know, the character from that one episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. I mentioned SpongeBob in the meme theory, but I failed to make the most obvious joke! This is what happens when you’re racing against the clock.

The fourth and most recent “purge survivor,” as I’ve called these write-ups, is “The Hawaiian Chupacabra,” which I think is one of the best articles I’ve ever done. I’m still so happy with it, even if I did digress quite a lot when discussing the Chupacabra itself.

Those four stories are the ones that survived the “purge.” Now, at long last, it’s time for the fifth one…

Which was actually scrapped because I fell behind schedule. Well, the original story was.

Yes, in a year filled with schedule changes, the original fifth survivor was taken out behind the shed and Old Yeller’d with some buckshot. I then had to dig up the corpse of another story to take its place—and that wording was not intended, given what you’re going to read later. My subconscious is screwing with me, and it’s only 2:36 in the afternoon.

Anyway, the story I opted to dredge up is from 4chan. Yes, we’ll be revisiting the site that I had no plans to revisit after I wrote about “A 4channer’s Disturbing VHS Discovery.” Why? Because I refuse to lose to the concept of time. I am far too arrogant to lose to clocks and calendars, dang it!

So, how do I intend to celebrate Christmas Day with you before we get to the Bonus Entry tonight? Well, you see, this isn’t any ordinary scary story. This is one that I said I didn’t think I could do justice to due to the time constraints. However, I’m feeling motivated, energized, and, above all else, eager to share something truly horrifying with you.

This is a story that does not bear a title. It does not bear any images. It does not bear anything other than one truly unsettling phrase; it’s a phrase that never fails to send a shiver down my spine.

“We’re Gonna Be a Family Again Soon.”

Decemystery (2024) 21: A 4channer’s Disturbing VHS Discovery

 

Something I’ve expressed a great deal of interest in doing is covering more stories from 4chan. Primarily cases from the site’s paranormal board, /x/, though I’m open to writing about tales from just about any board if it’s adequately strange enough.

Now, I have a feeling there are more than a few of you who find that idea rather silly. After all, 4chan is notorious for hoaxes and pranks; as such, covering the innumerable Fleshgait, UFO, cryptid, and ghost stories will result in me labeling the case a hoax more often than not.

However, the reason I want to start writing about the stories isn’t because I care about their veracity. Instead, it’s because I think the stories are just outright interesting; I find them creepy, and I’d like to share many of my favorite greentext horror stories with you. They’ve provided me with a lot of enjoyment throughout the years, and I think it could be fun to dedicate write-ups to them.

Last year, I covered a story called “The Screaming Stars,” which—aside from the numerous Conspiracy Iceberg cases that I’ve covered—remains the only greentext story I’ve covered on this blog. For those unaware, greentexts are the stories that utilize the > symbol prior to a sentence.

Now, originally, I’d planned to make Decemystery 2024 the year that I’d begin this trend. I had three stories picked out that I was eager to cover. However, they were all scrapped because I wasn’t confident I could do them justice. In hindsight, I’m sure I could’ve covered one of them and brought it to life in spades, but I digress. There’s always next year.

Despite wiping those three choices from the schedule, I still wanted to cover one spooky story from 4chan. So, I went looking for one. My options were plentiful, but one stood out to me. It’s a case that doesn’t feature anything I mentioned earlier; we’re not going into the realm of the paranormal or supernatural today, dear reader. No, today, we’re tackling something that falls into a rather unique category. It’s a creepy tale that leaves me feeling uncomfortable.

Hailing from /x/, this is a story that I called A 4channer’s Disturbing VHS Discovery. It’s one that I’m pretty sure I heard a great many years ago. And now, at long last, I’ll finally begin what I hope will become a tradition like with the Conspiracy Iceberg. Come along, dear reader; it’s time for us to journey to the Internet’s most infamous image board and see what terrifying tale awaits us in its archives this time!

Decemystery (2023) 20: sophia_red_room.avi

 

Content warning: this write-up contains a mention of rape and heavy violence. If that upsets you, it may be wise to gloss over this write-up. I don’t blame you if it does; it sure as hell upset me.

Hello, dear reader, and welcome back to my blog. If you read the write-up posted just before this one, then you’ll see that it’s one of two that I mentioned earlier this month. I had said I wanted to cover it at a future date. Well, I never did specify when, so I hereby say that that time is now.

Now, before I even get to the story, I want to address one thing—something related to the title. This story technically has to do with red rooms, which is a topic that’s been on my to-do list since 2019. I debated on whether I wanted to dive into them in any meaningful capacity, but I ultimately opted against it. My reason is simple: I think Internet mysteries are so over-talked about that there’s absolutely nothing I could add that would be worth a damn. All I would be doing is parroting the same thing dozens of YouTubers have said. Only it would be in text form instead of a video. But, who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind.

With that said, there is something I can add to—even if it’s only a bit. That is the horrifying story of sophia_red_room.avi! One of the many obscure entries on the Conspiracy Iceberg, this is one that caught my eye the day I first laid eyes on it. So, without further ado, let’s once again take a trip down the Conspiracy Iceberg!

Decemystery (2022.3) 20: Fox is Here

 

Well, I had said in a previous write-up this month that I wanted to cover this story at some point in the future alongside another. After much consideration, I decided that I may as well do both of them today!

I’m a simple man. While I’ve read about a lot of wild stuff and looked into a ton of weirdness, there is a lot I know little about. Two of those topics are mysticism and anything new-age. I cannot, for the life of me, wrap my head around either topic, even though I’ve tried.

Ideological stuff is another thing that I struggle with, but I’d rather save that for another day when I tackle a story that’s ideological in nature. For now, today’s story is something that dives into some mystical mysteriousness. Thankfully, it doesn’t require a whole lot of knowledge in order to get it. So I won’t need to give a half-baked lecture on anything.

Fox is Here is a story from the Conspiracy Iceberg. That’s about where the sensible stuff ends; this is easily one of the weirdest entries on that Iceberg. So come along, dear reader; it’s time to pull some Dan Brown-level shenanigans and find out the real names of God and The Devil!

Decemystery (2023) 7: VCR Wife

 

Hello there! Welcome back to my humble little blog. If you were around here an hour ago, perhaps you read about something (or rather someone) known as “The Sad Man.” If you didn’t, then don’t worry, that isn’t necessary. The only thing that is necessary is that today’s daily dose of mysteriousness is centered on two strange entries I found on the Conspiracy Iceberg. Both stories have little to nothing available on them, so I figured that it could be fun to take a gander at them both. After all, not every write-up needs to be about something noteworthy. Sometimes, it’s fun to kick back and look over an odd thing from the Internet.

So what do we have now? Well, this story is known as VCR Wife. When I first saw this story back in 2021, I was honestly enraptured by it in a weird way. There was something about the name that really stuck with me, and ever since then, I’ve wanted to dedicate a full write-up to it. In fact, it was on the schedule for Decemystery 2022, but as you can tell, that never materialized. It’s just like the planned Terminator trilogies from the last 15 years!

Anyway, enough with the digressions. Let us take a look at this story; it’s a story of romance and over 1,000 VHS tapes. Oh, baby, I can feel the nostalgia coursing through my veins! I really don’t like it.

Decemystery (2022.3) 7: The Sad Man

 

I love unsolved mysteries. I know that’s a truly shocking revelation, and it isn’t like it’s a focal point of this blog, but let’s not linger on that. Something else I love is conspiracy theories. I know, an even more shocking revelation and it isn’t like that’s some sort of niche topic we’ve talked about on this blog. I also love true crime, which is an even more shocking revelation!

I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about that love before on this blog, but my love for those topics is what drives me to write. However, in an era where everyone and their grandmother can post things online and make videos for platforms like YouTube, it’s hard to find a case or topic that hasn’t been covered to death. Let’s face it: everyone and their dog has heard the story of, say, the Zodiac. He’s one of the most widely talked about unidentified serial killers not just in the United States but in the world. It’s hard to really add something to that case unless I’m talking about an incredibly niche theory that holds practically no water. Given the kind of person I am, I would much rather not do that since I’d rather look at the whole case and not one single suspect.

As such, I prefer to focus on those “lesser known” cases. The ones that few, if any, people have talked about. However, even then, that’s pretty hard. There are people who dedicate their time to doing that, and as such, I tend to poach stories. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal somewhere in the world, so if I ever happen to disappear, there’s a possibility that that’s why. Joking aside, that desire of mine does pose its own challenges. When there’s a story out there I want to cover that has virtually no information on it, it more or less falls on me to actively find and present information. And if you’re a long-time reader of this blog, you know very well that my opinion of my research is low—very, very low.

Normally, that would be where I’d self-deprecate so much; my friends would express concern if I shared this introduction with them to ask for their opinions. That is not the case today, however! No, I’m happy today—super happy—because this is a story that I’ve really wanted to cover for a fair bit of time, ever since I included it in the second Megalist I did, to be exact. In fact, both of today’s stories are from that Megalist, and both I had hoped to cover last year. We’re starting off with this one because… I felt like covering it first.

Known as The Sad Man, this story originates from the Conspiracy Iceberg and is one of those stories that have little to nothing available about it. However, the mere summary of it from what I’ve found is so intriguing and so unusual that passing up on it would be criminally stupid. So come along, dear reader. Although the name of the story may invoke a sense of sadness, today’s story is going to be anything but sad!

Decemystery (2022.3) 1: The TED Talk "There Is Nothing" Incident

 

Hello there, dear reader! I have no real idea whether or not you will have read any sort of update by the time you’re reading this. If you are, then you likely know what my plans are for this year. If you haven’t read an update, then there’s a good chance that I never bothered to post a single thing the entire year (which likely has made my blog look like it was abandoned). Now, why don't I post an update? Well, I’m scared of making a promise and breaking it—again.

So, for the sake of providing one before we get into the fun, allow me to explain something. Brain fog sucks. Brain fog that lasts an entire year really sucks. Brain fog that stops you from doing the one thing that you believe you’re good at really, really sucks. Indeed, that’s pretty much the one and only reason that I never posted anything last year (a year which I had hoped would be my biggest and best year to date). Thanks, COVID! You robbed me of a year of my life.

Anyway, because of that, there was no Decemystery 2022. However, I’m nothing if not committed to saying that I’ve done a Decemystery each and every year. So, for this year, there will be not one but two Decemystery series! The first will be known as Decemystery 2022.3 and will be posted at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time. The second will be Decemystery 2023 and will be posted an hour later. This is the inaugural story of the first of those two. Also, I hope you don’t hate me for not posting anything of merit last year (besides a review of a really awful horror film). If you do hate me, all I can say is I’m sorry, and I deeply regret not posting more updates last year to let you all know what my health status was.

And then, immediately after writing this part of the introduction, I decided to post an update on the blog to alert people I was writing again. Why didn’t I delete this part? Because I wanted to pad the word count. No, really, that’s the only reason. :^)

So, confession time: I’ve never seen The Matrix. I know, that’s probably the worst thing to ever be uttered by any human being, but it’s true. Though I haven’t seen it, I am still very much aware of a great many things about it. For example, I know that Keanu Reeves starred in it, I know of bullet time, I know of the red and blue pills (take both pills at once, anons), and I know there was no spoon.

Now that I have confessed to my greatest cinematic sin and every Matrix fan is gone and preparing their cat-o’-nine-tails for my inevitable torturing, allow me to get this ball a-rollin’. I want to hone in on the concept of there being “no spoon.” I’m sure that most—if not all—of you are familiar with the “simulation theory.” If you aren’t, it’s the theory that reality is just some, well, simulation. Basically, we live in The Sims. Truly, this is a fate worse than Alt+F4.

The simulation theory is a controversial one, to be sure. It has its proponents and its dissidents, and whether the former spend their days trying their best to activate cheat codes within the hypothetical simulation is up for debate. Should any succeed, I hope they use those cheat codes for good and also help me get back the time I wasted watching Pride & Prejudice & Zombies in theaters.

Anyway, let’s get back on track. All of this rambling does have a point, and it’s one that I’ve struggled to make for quite some time. You see, I’m not a believer in the simulation theory, nor am I fond of it. Despite that, I never try to let my personal views or beliefs dictate what I write about or how I write about something. That doesn’t always end up being the case, though; sometimes, my personal beliefs end up taking over and end up with something extraordinarily narrow-minded or biased. However, in those cases, it’s usually something that I believe isn’t going to upset a lot of people—barring Nibiru (which I would like to one day do a rewrite on since I think my biased views on that make it an unpleasant read).

So, what am I trying to get at? Well, at the time of this writing (which is in January of this year), I’m finally getting back into writing after close to a year of not having done any. As such, I wanted to start off with something that I would consider easy, and today’s story fit the bill for me. Coincidentally, it’ll also be an exercise in me not inserting any personal beliefs or biased comments.

That story hails from one of the many, many Conspiracy Theory Icebergs. Known as the TED Talk “There Is Nothing” Incident, this is something I would expect to find on a creepypasta website. That would actually be preferable, given how absurdly difficult it was to find anything on this story, but I digress. This is something I’ve had on my radar for a few years now, and I finally wish to cover it today. So come along, dear reader. It’s time for Decemystery 2022.3 to begin, and it’s time to find out if there really is anything to the story that claims there really is nothing.

Decemystery (2021) 6: The Clown in the Woods

Today’s story was one which I really hadn’t planned on doing. You see, unlike the past three years, I wrote this Decemystery completely out of order; I just went with whatever I wanted, picked a date in December, and slapped decided that that was when that story would be posted. So when I got around to this story, it was towards the end of November. Nothing really special there, except for one little thing: the website Snopes had recently done an article on this picture. So I wasn’t entirely sure if I should cover it since, well, I didn’t want to seem like I was hopping on some sort of bandwagon.

Though the more I read over the articles Snopes had done, the more it became apparent that their piece on the topic was very inconclusive. There were a lot of lingering questions on my mind and I decided that I would look into the story for myself. To my surprise, there were some things that they omitted that no other website had talked about. That’s because nearly every other website that had an article on today’s story—which is typically referred to as The Clown in the Woods—didn’t add anything new. Instead, they simply copied and pasted the Snopes article and posted it.

Because of this, I decided that I’d take it upon myself to do some snooping around to see if I could come to any definitive conclusion. Yeah, that’s kind of arrogant of me given that I’m anything but a good researcher—let alone a detective—but I thought that this story could use a more analytical look (especially since it seems that there’s never been anything of that sort done outside of, well, Snopes). So come along, dear reader, it’s time we put on our Sherlock Holmes cap and get to work. This is the story that I like to call “The Clown Who Was Clowning Around in the Woods”.

Decemystery (2020) 15: What Does /b/ Keep in the Freezer?

 

Ah 4Chan. A place where madness, genius, and degeneracy collide, it’s one of my favorite places to go whenever I want to just cut loose and act like the biggest dingbat on the face of the planet. It’s also a place I go for material given it’s a haven for some of the strangest things you could ever find.

One board I seldom visit though is /b/, the “random” board. It has a reputation not only for housing some pretty seriously illegal content, but it’s also generally just flooded with porn threads nowadays. Every now and then, I’ll post a random image of an animal (mostly to see if I’ll get anything meaningful started), but more often than not, the thread will end up on Page 10 with maybe a handful of responses.

That wasn’t always the case though. Way back in the times of yore, /b/ would have actual threads one could partake in and have some semblance of fun in. That is to say, people who wanted to act like idiots could act like idiots and have fun with other idiots. It was fun, stupid, chaotic, and would likely make the average person nowadays wonder exactly was wrong with the average 4Chan user (not that that doesn’t happen nowadays, but let’s pretend 4Chan is as it was like in the good old days of moot).

At the same time, 4Chan was a place where some truly sick, twisted minds could go to share their… “creativity” and relish in the response they’d get. That’s the case with today’s story, a story that I call what does /b/ keep in the freezer? The name comes from the question the original poster asked the folks over at /b/. So let’s see exactly what /b/ keeps in the freezer, dear reader! Just be sure you haven’t eaten.

Mystery: The Old Tape

Howdy, dear reader. Tell me: do you listen to the radio? Of course you don’t, we only listen to our own playlists because streaming killed the radiostar. Lucky for us, some people inexplicably still listen to the radio instead of blasting the same song on loop for 3 hours during their daily commute; stuck in traffic again, wagie? Don’t worry, Spotify Premium only costs you half of what gasoline will when you’re home by 6:30 in the evening.

Well, that’s not on topic, now is it? I dare say it is, bros. You see, today, we’re headed to my home state: New York—also known as the Big Apple and the Empire State. When I think New York, I think of using up gas because of traffic. Funny joke, but let’s talk about New York for a moment. It’s home to Wall Street, Manhattan, and the most Presidents in United States history as of the time of this writing (Martin van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the current President: Donald J. Trump). Really interesting when you think about it; also, be sure to vote come November if you’re an American citizen so you can pretend that your vote matters if you don’t live in a swing state.

Ah, but where was I? Oh right, New York. This state is a cesspool, but that’s besides the point. When it comes to mysteries however, it’s got some interesting stuff under its belt. The 3X Killer, the 2008 Time Square Bombing, and the cost of living being feasible to anyone without the surname of Rockefeller are but three of the dozens of stories I could tell from the Corona Capital of the Planet (or CCP as I call it). We aren’t going to be covering any of those stories—though the bombing is one my immediate to-do list. Nay, we’re here to talk, well, radio! I said that two paragraphs ago, no?

Radio, although it may seem archaic to anyone who isn’t at least 20, was the way I listened to music before I had those new fangled smartphones. It was also how some folks would screw around; calling into radio stations to say stupid things before hanging up and leaving the host wondering why they didn’t take up a job on CNN. Today’s story is sort of like that, except it takes place in relationship to a college—or those places that leave you in debt until you’re letting your parents down one last time since you didn’t get a six-figure job.

Let’s finally get this introduction on track though. My insane, giddy rambling aside, today’s story brings us to New York; a radio station named WKCR. Those familiar with what I would call “creepy media” will likely recognize that name. It’s a station licensed by Columbia University. Back in 1995, a weird interruption took place. Nowadays, it’s known as the Old Tape or the WKCR Radio Interruption. I’ve been meaning to cover it for a few months now, but have had quite a bit of trouble making the story work. Though today, I will make it work.

With that said: I would just like to note that if this tape is old, then I’m very scared because I wonder how soon I’ll be thrown into the old folks home; also, someone please call the Military, I think my parents are zombies and World War Z is about to become a documentary.

Ah, this is going to be an energetic write-up. How I’ve missed this type of happiness in my life!

Mystery: Now They Hear It All The Time

The realm of Reddit is one that I’m highly hesitant to ever go near when it comes to content. While some may see it as more reputable than, say, 4chan, I think that Reddit’s voting system causes it to create not only a hivemind, but a sense of believability that can be passed along to the average user. This, in turn, can create the aforementioned hivemind. With a website like 4chan: there may be a hivemind at work on some boards, but it’s at least transparent about being one. Reddit isn’t that way, but that could just be my experience with the site.

In spite of that, there are times when Reddit provides me with something that’s a bit too good to pass up. In this case though, I didn’t find it myself. Rather, I found it from the fandom site “Paranormal World”. I went to this site when I covered the Nickelodeon Killer back in May and I made it clear (or at least I hope I did) that I didn’t want to seem like I was poaching content from the site. The person who operates the site deserves every bit of credit for finding these stories; I think that the stories they’ve covered are extremely fascinating (if a bit on the hard to believe side). Today, I want to make a journey back there because this one in particular really caught my attention as being something exceptionally interesting.

The story in question is about a mysterious PSA that a few Reddit users recalled seeing, but have never been able to find anything regarding its existence. That, on its own, is worth a write-up. Missing/lost media is something I’m really into, though I seldom cover it on its blog as it requires a fair bit more work, though I intend on covering it a little bit more as the year goes on—though I hope to have something like that posted this month.

Moving on though: it’s worth mentioning that this story, aside from just being something related to lost media, also reads a lot like a horror story. That, to me, is usually indicative of a creepypasta and given that this is related to television, one’s mind would drift into the realm of, say, Candle Cove, The Wyoming Incident, or Happy Appy. A mysterious piece of television history that hardly anyone remembers, but a few recall it and talk about it online. That screams of the the first and third (Happy Appy’s original story being a direct, shameless ripoff of Candle Cove) with the second being a broadcast intrusion as far as my shoddy memory can be asked to recall. Though I digress; let’s get back on track. We’re here to discuss a PSA and I don’t wish to waste too much time on the intro.

Due to how the story reads like a creepypasta, I was a bit hesitant at first to cover it. However, given it’ll be a bit before I believe I’m truly able to get my life fully back on track, I wanted to take a leap into a sort of “real life” creepypasta. So that brings us to the story at hand. As stated earlier, it takes us back to Paranormal World. It’s here that there is a page entitled Now They Hear It All The Time. I wish to take a look at this story because it’s certainly odd to see a story that screams “creepypasta” that’s treated with genuine sincerity. So let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this peculiar PSA and have a bit of fun with a potential piece of television history.

Mystery: J376

This story is dedicated to my close friend Seriff Pilcrow. While this isn’t everything he likely desired it to be, I nonetheless did my best given the circumstances that have transpired around this one write-up. Thank you for everything, bud. I greatly appreciate your assistance.

This story’s cursed. I swear on a Bible, it’s cursed. Every time I try to write about it, something bad happens. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at the track record for it.

September 2019: I suffered a terrible nightmare about my ex-girlfriend that led to me contemplating grabbing my father’s service handgun and shooting myself in the head.

November 2019: A group of friends that I frequently hung out with got into a major argument. I played the mediator for weeks (this began around the time as the event mentioned above too) upon weeks and I finally broke down from the constant fighting and bickering. The two groups fractured and I was forced to abandon my plans for last year’s Decemystery. I ultimately scrapped this story because of how stressed I was; how I managed to not miss a single day of Decemystery 2019 is beyond me, but I consider it an act of God (and my sheer unbridled will to not fall behind on my work, though at what cost, I’ll never know).

January 2020: My acid reflux began to flare up extremely badly and I was forced to take time off; this did ultimately lead to me deciding to make the megalist of 500 conspiracy theories. This is also the only time that anything good came from this nightmarishly awful mystery.

March 2020: I suffered from a severe depressive episode due to my Yellow Lab dying; I scrapped covering it as a surprise for a friend of mine.

May 2020: I ended up having a complete and total mental breakdown in the middle of the month the week I’d begun to work on it once more. I’m still recovering from the breakdown because it was triggered by a year’s worth of pent up emotional distress and anger; the end result was five separate suicide attempts, losing a close group of friends I’d made four months ago, and being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

July 2020: The day I started to cover this, I nearly had a breakdown due to the regret I’ve experienced due to the above mentioned breakdown. This culminated in a terrifying 3-hour-long mood swing where I became lucid to my desires to slit my wrists with razor blades and repeatedly contemplated other methods to end my life.

Lucky for me: seven is one of my lucky numbers. So on this seventh attempt, we’ll be covering J376.

Mystery: Is Five Nights At Freddy's Based on a True Story?

I promised a few friends of mine last month that I would cover this story this month. Given how miserable I’ve been as of late, I figured I’d try to cheer myself up by writing about it today. In hindsight, this was a terrible idea because I want to use glass shards to brush my teeth simply looking at the title. So without further ado, let’s ask a very simple (and silly) question: is Five Nights At Freddy’s based on a true story? 

Mystery: The Terrifying Commercial Break

An image from the horror film Hostel.

I had plans to cover a story about a very famous unidentified murder victim case today. Alas, I got caught up in real life and didn’t want to rush through the story. As such, I decided to pick out a story from a wiki that I’d discovered while making my megalist: Paranormal World. It’s a site with a host of really fascinating, weird, and unique stories that I’d never heard of until I found the site. If I’m to be honest, I was extremely tempted to poach a bunch of them for this month, but I was hesitant as I didn’t want to be seen as a content thief. I did take a bunch of them for the megalist, but I’m highly doubtful more than two or three will remain on there (this particular story didn’t make it on there as an FYI).

Now with that said, even though I used some of them to fill slots on that list, I was still hesitant to even make this write-up. The main reason being: it seems the writer of that wiki is the only author, and it acts as something of a personal blog to them. I didn’t want to write about something that may be extremely personal to the writer. Not to mention, the story comes from Reddit which, as some of you may know, I’m really not fond of. However, I decided to throw aside my concerns and go through with it as I think I have an interesting argument to make in the long run. So let’s dig into what I call The Terrifying Commercial Break.

Look, I didn’t want to copy the name that Paranormal World used. If you’re curious by the way, click here to see the original article. I’d highly recommend you check out the other stories on the wiki too. They’re extremely interesting and the writer deserves a lot more credit for the stuff he finds.

Mystery: 62.10401554464931 24.459908986464143

A still frame from the video in question. Source: Cool Interesting Stuff.

Internet mysteries: they’re a lot like Bethesda games. On the surface, they offer you the world and then some. However, once you so much as lay a finger on the door handle to let them in, they crumble into dust and fall apart. Then a dragon spins around and flies away spraying fire everywhere.

Indeed, Internet mysteries are far from the most magnificent things out there when it comes to compelling content. Though that doesn’t immediately mean they’re bad. If you’re a talented writer, you can explore beyond what’s presented to show the greater picture. This is where a serious divide comes into play when it comes to the innumerable amount of videos and articles about your dime-a-dozen Internet mysteries; the so-called “greatest” of them. You know, the Markovian Parallax Denigrate, A858, Unfavorable Semicircle, and every ARG this side of the Milky Way. Because of this, I often believe that most Internet mysteries fall into one of three categories:

The first is that they’re an art project. Some artsy student threw together some bizarre imagery that would make Lars von Trier gush over the deep meaning as to why the maggots are crawling on the woman. As a result, the denizens of the Internet think it’s a confession to a murder and it makes it to about a dozen top ten lists where people put a red circle around Mick Jagger’s lips, signifying that he too is behind Paul McCartney being the father to Ariana Grande.

The second is that it’s an ARG, or “alternate reality game”. Basically, a very bored person makes a game where people go outside and don’t practice social distancing. These kinds of games are very popular and actually quite cool. I had once contemplated making one myself, but I’m neither clever enough nor do I have any reason to make one. I also don’t think there’s any point to making one when there are enough out there to satisfy most fans of ARGs.

The third and final category is that the answer is something mundane, boring, and ultimately very normal. A supposedly creepy website was made by someone for fun, a creepy video was made for a contest or for school, or any other “mysterious” piece of content on the Internet was, well, just made because the user wanted to make it.

That brings us to today’s supposed mystery. It’s called 62.10401554464931 24.459908986464143 and it’s one of those “lesser known” Internet rabbit holes because it never took off. Though just like any other titan of the Internet mystery genre, it has its own base of truth seekers that suspect there is something malicious behind this video. So let’s journey down the rabbit hole and see what the truth is.

Mystery: QAnon

I want to take a brief digression from the standard mystery setup that I’ve created to take a more rambling approach. This is because the story I want to discuss today is one that I’ve been trying to write about for well over a year now, but haven’t been able to because researching it is a nightmare. It’s an ever evolving, ever changing story that isn’t likely to stop until after the 2020 United States Presidential Election cycle has ended. Even then, there’s a very good chance it will continue to evolve even after it’s ended regardless of the victor.

The story today is known as QAnon and there are few—if any—few stories that have ever come close to being as fascinating as it. If you’re somehow unfamiliar with the legendary 4chan, 8chan, and 8kun poster, then I encourage you to read this post. While both Q and the movement that surrounds Q are ever changing, my desire has never quite been to debunk or verify/legitimize him (or, more likely, them). Rather, it’s been to figure out exactly who’s behind the moniker. That still remains true with what this write-up will be focusing on. So if you’re looking for confirmation bias, I must say that you’ll be disappointed. One thing I’ve always hated about researching Q is that there’s an obscene amount of bias that goes into every write-up, so I’d rather refrain from contributing to that toxic pile. Why that is is very simple to explain: Q, whether you believe what they say to be legitimate, has changed the face of American politics on both sides of the spectrum. Some see Q as a hero. Others, a villain. What’s the truth though? Well, let’s find out.

Mystery: The Sabinche Tomatovic Tape

A man standing in front of a giant web. I was going to use a rendition of the J'ba Fofi, but I figured it'd be best if nobody got night terrors from seeing one.

I mentioned this tape on my megalist from just under a week ago. I had no intention of writing about it yet, but I’ve decided that in order to bridge the gap between now and March, I should go ahead and share with you all the oh so lovely story of the Sabinche Tomatovic Tape. I hope you’re not arachnophobic.

Mystery: Slender Man

Over the course of this little blog’s history. I’ve gone through a fair number of weird little stories. Blair Adams, the 3X Killer, and the 2006 Volleyball Incident are three that, in my eyes, are some of the strangest. They all have elements that really make them stand out in a sense that defies what we as a species accept as the norm.

In the case of Blair Adams, we see the elements of something that has no puzzle pieces to connect. Every piece that exists paints the picture of a disturbed man, but one who realistically has no enemies unless we’re to speculate on a darker and more sinister secret at play. As such, it shows how sometimes, we just consider the more fantastical theories when there’s nothing else to go off of.

With the 3x Killer, there’s really nothing to work with. It’s the embodiment of strange in every realistic capacity. So much so that I had to stop and wonder if I was potentially chasing a fictitious story. All of this stands out in how it showcases that reality is stranger than fiction.

Last, but certainly not least, the 2006 Volleyball Incident introduces is to a different kind of strange. It makes one wonder how the powers that be may be working against you to program you to react to tragedies by tampering with media coverage. This sort of thing I’ll cover in more detail, but there’s a lot of coverage of this kind of thing on many, many websites that specialize in conspiracies and the like.

All three of these stories have something in common though. They’re all based in reality. While the 2006 Volleyball Incident is admittedly a conspiracy theory, it’s nonetheless something that hits close to home due to the topic at hand: a sociopath causing harm to many people for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

That brings us to today’s story. It introduces to us a new sort of deviation from the norm—and it’s a very heavy deviation at that. While the aforementioned three stories all diverge in a way that remains in the realm of reality, this one doesn’t. It instead takes is to the realm of fiction.

Last month, I briefly touched upon Shadow People. I need to revisit as the time limit I had on writing about them made me leave out a lot of details (and I was beginning to get very ill). One of those details was how belief can, in the eyes of some, allow for the manifestation of whatever the believer wishes could be real. This element ties into the belief that Shadow People are a product of the energies and emotions that someone emits.

The idea I’m getting at is this: what if Shadow People aren’t limited to that manifestation? What if other entities are also products of such acts? Such a concept is likely to be laughed at, but some believe it. Our central focus today is one of the more popular “creations” of this belief.

Known as Slender Man, this creepypasta character is one that originated from a contest on the website Something Awful. Since he’s become a horror icon around the world, some have come to say the tall, thin, faceless monster of Internet legend really lurks in the forests of the world. So take a gander and see if this is true or not.

Decemystery (2019) 24: Gary Sudbrink's Phone Calls

I can't find a photo of Gary Sudbrink. So here's a Man in Black.

Information on this case is as scarce as can be. Despite it being something that one would think UFO researchers would latch onto like there’s no tomorrow, there aren’t many videos available on YouTube related to this story. As such, most of what I’ve grabbed is from a few Reddit posts. So without further ado: this is the story of Gary Sudbrink’s Phone Calls.