There’s a well known YouTuber who tells creepy stories on his channel. One video in particular has garnered a lot of attention. It has millions of views and people won’t stop talking about it.
Apparently some guy was traveling with some family, something went wrong one of the nights, and the guy started acting really weird and paranoid for the rest of their trip. The conclusion to this story is some mall security camera footage. He randomly bolts out of the mall in a full sprint, and was never seen or heard from again. I’ve had it recommended to me by a number of people.
However, I don’t like weird shit. I’m the type of guy who jumps at every jump scare in a horror movie. I’m the type of guy who unnaturally fears uncommon occurrences just because of fear of the unknown. The last thing I need is more content to obsess and get paranoid over.
Unfortunately for me, weird shit has been happening lately regardless. That’s why I’m writing this. Maybe I’ll feel better writing it all down. Or maybe someone can help me. It all started a few weeks ago.
It was beautiful day out. The sun was shining, and my friends and I had just had a blast grilling, laughing at inside jokes, and talking about videos we’d seen. I had to head home to do some paperwork, and was walking down the sidewalk to get there. It didn’t take long before I felt the sudden feeling that I was being watched. I knew this route home like the back of my hand so feeling uncomfortable doing it was an unusual sensation. But somehow I knew someone was watching me.
I peaked over my shoulder and saw someone duck behind some nearby bushes. That was mildly concerning. I thought about what I should do next. I’m naturally pretty fast, and there was some distance between us. I decided to turn around and stay put for a moment. I wanted to see if this person was going to duck their head out. If it was a friend I’d give them hell, and if not I’d be out of there quicker than Usain Bolt.
The beaming sun made it easy to see their shadow lingering from behind the bushes. I waited and waited but they never looked up. I threw out a few casual insults my friends would understand hoping to get a reaction. The shadow remained still. Eventually I got sick of standing around and yelled at them to fuck off before I went on my way. The feeling faded and I made it home safely.
Everything was normal for a couple of days after that. I ended up telling my friends about the stalker following me and they laughed it off as me imagining things. No one there would fess up. It did seem pretty unlikely for someone to want to follow me of all people though. I’m just an ordinary dude. Maybe they were right, and I had been imagining things. It could have been the shadow of the bush. That would explain the lack of movement.
I would’ve liked it had that been the case. It wasn’t. Last week I was laying in bed when that sensation came over me again. It was much stronger this time around. It’s far more unsettling to feel watched in your bedroom as opposed to the street on a bright day. I had dozed off when that sensation startled me and woke me up. My eyes darted around the room looking for anything but it was dark.
I slowly crawled out of bed, and tiptoed over to the door. I paused after every step to listen for anything unusual. I could feel my palms beginning to perspire. After what seemed like minutes I finally reached the door. I shook the knob a little but it didn’t budge. That was a good sign, the door was still locked. I flipped the light switch and looked around my room.
The closet was open as I had left it. Clothes were on the floor but that was normal. Everything seemed to be in place. That’s a relief.
I was about to flip the switch back off when I noticed something on my window. I moved closer to see what it was. It looked like someone had used their breath to fog it up. Whatever part of the brain is responsively for fear receptors immediately went off.
I definitely didn’t do that but in looked like it was done from the inside, and the weather couldn’t have done that. My room is on the second floor. Lastly, and most concerning, inside the fog it looked like someone had used their finger to spell the word WATCH.
Watch what? My back?
I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I laid there with my eyes wide open, lights on, and completely still outside of some trembling until dawn. When I felt the courage to leave my bed I noticed a big sweat stain from where I had been laying.
I thought long and hard about it before deciding not to alert authorities. Maybe I’m naïve but I didn’t think fog writing on my window, which was no longer visible, was going to be an easy sell to the cops that I needed protection. I imagine they’d say the same as my friends-you’re imagining things.
Thankfully, the next few days went by without incident. Though my sleep continued to suffer anyway.
Three days ago, things started to get worse. I’d gotten off work early and decided to hit the gym. I’ve been letting myself go a little lately and lack of sleep doesn’t help. I could stand to lose a few pounds if I’m being honest. I worked up a sweat hitting the weights, and decided to end with a lot of work on the treadmill. Running fast and having stamina are excellent survival skills after all.
Finally, I’d felt like I’d put in enough miles, and decided to call it a day. It was later in the day when I hit the locker room. The sauna was open. That could be relaxing. Why not? I undressed myself and grabbed a towel before heading in.
This was a good decision. I sat as the heat vaporized my worries. I could literally feel stress exiting my body. My severe lack of sleep must have been at its breaking point because I nodded off quickly.
When I came to, luckily I was still alone. That would’ve been awkward to explain.
I stretched my sweaty limbs before getting up. I headed towards the door. What I saw made me pause in my tracks. The door had writing on it exactly like my window. This time it said WATCH THE VIDEO.
Now, I was freaked the fuck out. Someone was fucking with me, and it was working. I quickly ran to get changed and then went directly to the front desk.
They sent someone to go look but the writing was no longer there. I asked if there was any camera footage, and they said legally they can’t film inside locker rooms. I pleaded for them to do something. They basically said exactly what I was hoping they wouldn’t. I was probably imagining things because I’d just woken up.
What video was I even supposed to watch? The one on YouTube? Why was that so important? Who would fuck with me over YouTube viewership? Is one view that important? I couldn’t think of any other videos it could be about.
The first thing I did after leaving the gym was text my friends separately. I needed absolute confirmation they were not behind this. I knew it was long shot, none of them went to my gym, but I had to try.
My texts were probably a little frantic. My worst fears were confirmed when one by one each friend responded with a no, some of them asking if I was okay or if I wanted to talk. I was in no mood to respond and left them on read.
I knew what I saw. No one believing me was starting to make me feel crazy. This was now three separate incidents that had happened, each progressively worse than the last, and no one was doing anything about it. People were treating me like I’m losing it. Something else was eating at me too, this felt familiar.
I was getting paranoid. Can you blame me? Wouldn’t you? I’ve been calling in sick from work the last few days. I’m hiding out at my place because I don’t know what else to do.
The feeling of being watched has come back. I don’t feel safe anywhere. The days have blended together and if I’m being honest I don’t know if I’ve slept or not. I don’t feel like I’ve been cognizant of everything that’s happened since I’ve locked myself in here but it’s hard to say one way or the other.
There’s really only one thing to do. If this person or thing really wants me to watch the video, then fine, I’ll watch the fucking video.
I typed in the creator’s name, scrolled for the video, and clicked on it. Yeah, it was unsettling. Was it really worth creepy messages and stalking over? I think not. I was about to hit X when I noticed something off in the reflection of my monitor.
I swung around. Written on my wall, in what looked like blood, was KEEP GOING.
Tears began welling up in my eyes. Someone or something was here. I was probably going to get hurt. Maybe even die. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, and feel the wetness as my clothes began absorbing water from my body. I even noticed some blood seeping through my sock.
I turned back to my laptop monitor to watch the remainder of the video. It was hard to focus with my body shaking and the terror flowing through my brain but apparently I needed to see this. The mall security footage played and finally I saw the man run out of the mall from a bunch of different angles and cameras.
The video was grainy, however, each camera and angle only brought me more discomfort, and all of my senses were going haywire now.
The man in the mall was me.