I stumbled upon a VHS tape at a thriftstore. Its label was plain and unassuming, with the word “RECORDING” scrawled across it in faded marker. Beneath the inscription was a date, “October 17th, 1993.” Intrigued, I purchased the tape along with a vintage VCR from the store. Once I returned home, I eagerly hooked up the VCR and inserted the tape. The screen flickered to life with a burst of static, followed by an eerie, distorted image. The TV just broke down and I didn’t really think much of it.
Then strange things started happening, small details seemed to change. My sister’s name appeared as “Anna” on my phone, it’s always been Ana with one n. Then, all of my healthy plants just dried out in a matter of a week, despite me not changing the routine. My neighbor’s dog became completely white, it used to have black spots on its back. My usually active cat is now sleeping 24/7. The last straw was me realizing that my apartment was now on the 5th floor, instead of 4th. I needed some sort of closure or at least an answer as to what was going on. As I glanced at my broken TV, that’s when it clicked… The tape… The goddamn tape… I turned my house upside down in searches for the receipt, after finding it I grabbed the tape and rushed to the thirftstore. As I held the tape I noticed that the damage was gone. It was no longer burned.
I didn’t waste any time and rushed to the thriftstore. I returned the cursed tape and got my money back. Wanting to do nothing with the tape, I donated the money I recieved. Next morning everything had gone to normal… Am I going insane? Definetely not. I remembered the date written on the tape, figured I’d do a few searches. Nothing had come up, I was a kid around that time, so I decided to pay my mom a visit. She had a stone fireplace in her home and used newspapers to start fire. I noticed that the newspapers she used had dated all the way back to the 70’s. I started going through them and found one that matched the date written on the tape. What are the odds? I started reading the articles and one caught my attention, a news-reporter killed himself while broadcasting live. That’s all I could gather from it. I asked my mom about it and she said she watched it live and that she was friends with his wife. According to my mom, Walter, the reporter kept on talking about some tape he wanted to play. I was shocked. I asked her what else she knew about it, she said that his wife shared the stories about the tape and how it haunted Walter to death. Could I have possibly stumbled across the tape he wanted to play? I asked my mom if she watched the broadcast on the TV in the house and she said yes. Something is telling me that the tape will play on her TV…
Should I go back to the thriftstore and attempt to play the tape on my mom’s TV or just let it go?