It’s the first thing we tell anyone who either moves here or is thinking about moving here. If you do not see a person, you do not respond or react to them calling out to you. Doesn’t matter if you are in the store and hear a friend saying hi behind you, or if it’s the middle of the night and your long lost sister is outside your bedroom door, you do not answer.
I’ve seen a few people move here and not take the rule seriously. “It’s just folklore.”, “They’re probably trying to scare me.”, “Every town has a few crazies.”. Those were probably their thoughts before they faced whatever haunts this town.
I remember one woman who moved here 3 years ago. Probably in her 30’s or so. I don’t know why she chose this town. She had to have been warned and even urged not to move here by at least a few people. Despite that, she came here. She didn’t last more than a week.
I was there when it happened. It was in the local grocery store. She was standing to the left of me, talking to a cashier, when she suddenly turned and said “Hi!”. That was the last word she spoke before she looked startled for a second and began to scream. I turned away and continued putting groceries in my cart. The cashier just looked down at the till. The other people there probably did something similar. We all knew the second rule after all.
When someone starts to scream for no apparent reason, you turn away, and pretend it’s not happening. It protects you from meeting the same fate. At some point, the screaming will stop, and the person will have disappeared. Then, it is safe to turn to where they were previously standing again. When this happens, all records of the “taken” person will vanish. Official documentation, photos, and even online accounts. Everything just disappears in the blink of an eye.
Sometimes, the families or friends of the taken people will try to report them as missing, unfortunately, you can’t report someone who does not exist as missing. Police come over to our town occasionally regardless of lack of evidence that the taken person ever existed. We could tell them that yes, the person was here, but we know better than to acknowledge those who have been taken.
That’s the third rule. You do not acknowledge those who have been taken to anyone else. Thinking about them is fine, writing about them in a personal diary is fine, but if you talk to someone else about them, you will meet the same fate.
The first time I encountered an imposter (the name the town has given whatever takes the people who reply to them) was when I was 10 years old. It’s common to hear an imposter for the first time between the ages of 9 and 12. You will have been thoroughly warned against them and most parents will practice with their children to make sure they don’t answer.
I was laying in my bed at around 9PM, when I suddenly heard someone calling out to me.
“Michael, did you brush your teeth?”
It was my mother’s voice. I almost responded, but I had practiced for this, so I stayed quiet. The next morning I told my mom I’d heard her call out to me last night, and she was proud of me for not responding.
At first, you hear an imposter maybe once every 1 or 2 months, and only really during the night, but as you grow older, they become more frequent, and they start appearing at more times of day. For me, at the young age of 54, it’s common to hear at least 1 or 2 imposters per day, sometimes in the store, other times at my workplace. I’ve needed to grow more cautious around them too, that’s rule number 4.
As you get older, imposters appear more often, but they also need less of a response to take you. When you are a child, anything less than shouting “HELLOOO!!!” at them will not count as a response. But at my age, just turning slightly in their direction will already be enough of a response. You get used to it though, after over 40 years of avoiding them, I’m trained to not react at all to hearing someone call out to me.
If someone were really trying to get my attention, they would just tap me on the shoulder.
You may be wondering why people in this town don’t just move away, and it’s because they won’t let us. They can sense your intentions. Even if you are “just going on a holiday”, they can sense you are trying to flee the town. This will be considered a response, and, well, you know what happens to those who respond.
Another question you might have is why I’m posting this, wouldn’t that be considered acknowledging a person who has been taken? The answer is that yes, it will be. But only once I post it, so I can write this safely. And I want to post this, because you need to be warned. If you ever enter a town, and get warned to not respond to those who call out to you, you listen. You take it to heart.
Beside, I’m close to the end anyway. I will soon reach the age where even blinking or breathing will be considered a response. So if I’m on my way out anyway, I might as well warn people. I’m posting this on a friend’s account, so I hope that that can evade the records of my existence disappearing.
I urge you, do not move here. And if you do, remember the rules I wrote, and do not respond to those who call out to you.