Despite
the fact that this weekend is all about FREEDOM and FIREWORKS and
ASKING PEOPLE TO HOLD YOUR BEER WHILE YOU DO SOMETHING STUPID, a story
that's been blowing up all over Reddit will make you think that what
we're really heading into is halloween. Because it's so creepy, it will
make you lose sleep.
It's
fitting that the story comes from the Reddit community No Sleep which
is meant to provide redditors a forum to share ghost and horror stories
that are purported to have happened to them. Some, of course,
can be attributed to hallucinations and delusions and some are so badly
written that they howl FAKE like a banshee in heat (which is a thing, I
am sure), but the following story has been catching the attention of
thousands of people, and even if it's a hoax (saying it right now) it's a
very engaging albeit creepy read.
Nathan, the poster
of the story, says that his girlfriend Emily died in a horrific car
crash in 2012. A year later, unhappy with whatever afterlife had been
provided her, Emily returned to the mortal plane to communicate with
Nathan. Through Facebook. Because that is the least creepy way to
communicate with your dead partner. (Note: It is the most creepy. If my
partner dies, I would prefer he send me like a fax because I don't like
people playing on my social media.)
If
Nathan is lying, he's spent a great deal of time putting together some
haunted screenshots. According to him, only he and Emily's mom
(::ominous music plays::) have access to the Facebook, and the messages
are all recycled, suggesting that whoever is doing the haunting is
either being very careful to stay in Emily's voice or that the ghost of
Emily can't create new messages, only manipulate old ones.
So
far, so good, except for one thing: Sometime during their exchange,
whoever was contacting Nathan began using a new word: Freezing.
Expand
This terrified Nathan (and me), especially because he began imagining Emily freezing, possibly in the same car she had died in.
And then Emily started tagging herself in photos:
E
And then, Emily took a photo of Nathan and sent it to him:
That's
where the story takes an even stranger twist. The OP could absolutely
be perpetrating a hoax (these things have happened on the internet once
or twice before) or he could be mentally ill (many posters have
suggested PTSD or a dissociative disorder). It is possible that Nathan
is sending himself these messages to himself while dissociating.
Others are assuming that Emily's mother, stricken with grief, has been
sending the messages or that a hacker is just toying with Nathan's
emotions. Either way, once you read the full story, it's unlikely that
you'll be able to ignore the sounds of your house settling and you may
have a hard time turning the light off. Especially after you read
Nathan's last post, a garbled mess of nonsense that just might make your
heart race.
Expand
The
thing that's most remarkable about this story is how commenters have
come together to try and help Nathan. Perhaps it is because of the pain
that Nathan's posts are tinged with or perhaps Nathan's experience is
activating all of our secret desire to communicate with a loved one
that's passed on, but the way that users are communicating with him,
trying to share their experiences or wishing him the best almost makes
this whole thing more touching than chilling. Almost.
H/T: Tracy "I am a horrible human being" Moore
No comments:
Post a Comment