“La Gárgola” of Barceloneta: Puerto Rico’s New Chupacabra (593)

By: Claudia Rosas

As if it were yesterday, I can remember sitting in my desk, my senior year of high school, and hearing a guy in my classroom shout at his phone: “NOOOOO! La Gárgola is on the LOOSE! Sheila is CHAINED to a tree in our patio! She is GOING TO DIE!” As if we were living in a TV sitcom, everyone looked at Manolo, the guy shouting frantically at a news post from El Vocero, a local newspaper from Puerto Rico, that disclosed the discovery of Barceloneta’s resident Edgardo Santiago Rodríguez seeing a monster kill his neighbor’s chicken, while chilling at the pool. Apparently, that morning, Edgardo saw a “bodybuilder in animal form” biting the neck of a chicken and drinking all of its blood, while the chicken stood paralyzed, as if hypnotized by the thing he called: “La Gárgola.” In case you aren’t familiar with Spanish, a “gárgola” is a gargoyle, exactly like those that lurk on top of fancy cathedrals and those seen in the movie Hunchback of Notre Dame. The only twist here is the apparent suggestion that one of these gargoyles came to life and is now running free in the mountains of Puerto Rico, paralyzing livestock and hungry for blood. Yes, you are not crazy; this sounds exactly like the Chupacabra, possibly hinting at the fact that this was just an exaggeration or entirely made up story by Edgardo. But regardless, people bought the story, felt overwhelmed by the chaos, and almost everyone, including the Puerto Rico police, thought it was a real threat to the Puerto Rican public. Hence, explaining why Manolo was so scared of his dog, Sheila, being sucked dry by “La Gárgola,” while we were about to start a full day of classes.

This urban legend grew to such an extent that multiple of Edgar’s neighbors claimed they hear and saw “La Gárgola” flying near the mountains and over fields that enclosed livestock. Only this time, the people described it as having red, demon eyes and 5-foot-long wings. Up to this day, only animals have been reported as victims of “La Gárgola,” but Reinaldo Ríos, the president for the heavily doubted “Partido Extraterrestre Omnipotente,” an alien supporting organization, has warned others of the huge possibility of “La Gárgola” shifting to hunting humans. Hence, why the Puerto Rico police had to get involved to calm down the paranoid residents of Barceloneta and protect them while they searched for the gargoyle. Specifically, the police force helped during full moons, since that was the day believed to be reserved by “La Gárgola” to hunt. The absurdity of these searches was such that the residents of Barceloneta would head out to the mountains, escorted by the local police force and lead by licensed hunters, with armor, shotguns, and metal cages to trap and kill “La Gárgola.”

Being the way Puerto Ricans are, most residents outside of the Barceloneta suburb turned this spectacle into an opportunity to create memes and make fun of the government for involving the police in these absurd searches. The impact of “La Gárgola” was such that Snapchat even created a filter of a dancing gargoyle for residents to post as fake spottings of the gargoyle. This grew even more ridiculous when people gave the gargoyle a theme song, Randy’s 2006 single, “Soy una gárgola” or I am a gargoyle. Needless to say, “La Gárgola” will forever be part of Puerto Rican culture and I wouldn’t doubt if somewhere in the near future another resident spotted “La Gárgola” again.

Fear the Light

By: Liza Gavrilova 

Some of the best horror stories are created by taking a common thing and making it horrifying. Haunted objects are a prime example of this – where any household object can become an object of horror with a well-placed evil ghost possession. Simple symbols we see every day can also become central to a horror story, such as in Junji Ito’s “Uzumaki”, where spirals corrupt a small, seaside town. 

There is one thing that is so common within our lives that it tends to fall into the background – light. Every moment of our lives has light. The daytime is quite abundant with light of course, and we brighten our night with artificial lighting. Even before the advent of fire and electricity, the night was illuminated by the moon and millions of stars. So, what happens when something so thoroughly present in our lives starts to work against us? These two stories explore this idea. 

One of the most popular videos on the classic analog horror channel Local 58 is “Weather Service” (linked above). This short video is a fictional emergency warning alert for a strange “meteorological event”. The warning first advises viewers to “not look at the night sky”, but soon contradicts itself, saying that “the meteorological event is safe for all to view” and urging the viewer to go outside. The warning then degrades, the new, seemingly hijacked message urging the viewer to not look at the moon and to avoid all windows and mirrors. The final part of the video is a message in bold white letters on a white background: “It’s in the light. The moon came in. He found me. Thru the mirror. Moonlight white… I drown in him. If you are afraid. We will look together.” It then cuts to a video of the moon at night, screams echoing in the background. The moonlight is set up as a corrupting force of some sort, though we are never shown what that effect is. While it’s simple to say that you can stay inside and avoid corruption, moonlight is so prevalent in our lives that we tend to forget about where it touches. It can seep through cracks in drawn curtains, under doors, and, as stated in the video, reflected through mirrors. And if it finds you, you might be as good as dead. 

The short story/SCP article “SCP 001: When Day Breaks” is set around a similar premise. (Also known as “S.D. Locke’s Proposal”. You can read it here: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/shaggydredlocks-proposal). This story is based around a scenario in which the sun gets corrupted and turns blood red, its light corrupting anything it touches. The sunlight turns almost all living things into fleshy, goop creatures whose only goal pull anything left alive into the light. Any sunlight means death, or more so a fate worse than death. Of course, this not only affects direct sunlight but also reflected sunlight, such as light reflected from mirrors as shown in “Weather Service”, but also moonlight itself, since that is also reflected sunlight. Thus, there is not much you can do to escape a miserable fate, except maybe leave the solar system. But good luck with that. Light waves propagate through space. The light will find you eventually. 

What is so frightening about these two stories is how hopeless they are. Light is such a constant in our lives, especially moonlight and sunlight, that we often tend to forget their prevalence in most places until we are asked to think about how to avoid it. There is no way to fight it or somehow turn it off either – these celestial bodies are just too large, powerful, and complex for a group of survivors and even our current civilization to change in any substantial way. There is no way to stop it. There is no way to turn it back to what it once was. You can only lock yourself in a windowless room to live out the rest of your life or succumb to the light. 

Rotting Toys and Where to Find Them

By: Rilie Saba

I was somewhat surprised that the motion detector doors still opened as I walked through. There was no blast of heat as I walked in, despite it being far into October. I heard the car lock, the distinct chime rang out as I heard my partner’s footsteps approach me.

“Are you sure that this is the right mall? It looks like everything’s… closed,” they said, eyes flicking between the TJ Maxx and the dilapidated massage spa (that was probably a front for something more illegal given the prices) across the way. We were in search of the closest Best Buy- I really wanted this specific Overwatch keychain that they had been discounting for months at this point (the game had been out for 3 years, so the merchandise wasn’t really new anymore). They released multiple variants of this plush keychain, and I really tried to get all of them given that they were like, three bucks each.

None of the storefronts had their lights on- some had their doors locked, but others remained open. Only the empty shelves and crumpled trash remained. One store that sold cell phone parts had all of the windows smashed in, display counters toppled over and ransacked. There were two teenagers smoking cigarettes in one of the long hallways, the familiar scent curling from the jaws of the corridor. The emptiness started to boil in my chest as I read the store signs. Old gimmick shops lost to time: I just stood there trying to picture the broken shelves filled with colorful statuettes and cheap merchandise. I considered going into some of the stores with open doors to see what junk I could find, but decided that I actually did not want any petty theft charges to result from my curiosity.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom,” my partner said, pointing towards the bathroom sign hanging by one chain. I didn’t want them to leave me alone, but I didn’t want to hold them hostage with me in this decrepit mall either. They stalked off, and my eyes fell upon a small arcade. The paint was most certainly from the 90s or early, but it was still clean. Some of the machines’ lights were burnt out and empty. Loose balls from the skeeball machine laid on the ground with seemingly no shadows. A claw machine sat at the back corner. The lights were bright, music blaring from a garbled sound box. Something smelled wrong- it didn’t smell like biological decay, though. It smelled more chemical, more moldy than anything else.

I peered inside, and the age of this place hit me alongside this new wave of stench. The plushies on top had dollar bills rubber banded to them, the only real incentive to try and rescue them. Large button eyes stared back, but not really at me. Through me, maybe. They were probably added within the past year, given that they were the same Sugar Loaf brand plushies I started to see in the claw machines at the local Walmart.  But underneath them, rotting plushies laid to rest, seemingly buried by their newer brethren: Explained the smell, I guess. Electric neon fur stained black, hyphae curling around the button eyes. If I shook this machine, it probably would have become a fungal snowglobe.

These plushies, this building- they had been left to disintegrate. The shelves once filled with money sinks now sat there in mockery. Just knowing that this place was once a vibrant arcade, probably well loved by the local kids (myself included), and then seeing it as a shell; there’s a sort of sadness tangled within that. It felt as if a part of my childhood was over. Large black buttons stared back at me, gaze as empty as those storefronts.

I found out recently that the Greendale Mall was eventually demolished in 2021 and turned into an Amazon distribution center, but I can only picture the mycelia of those plushies beneath the dirt, waiting to crawl back up to the surface again.

Extras:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WorcesterMA/comments/edw2wj/wishful_thinking_at_the_greendale_mall/ picture of the exact arcade

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greendale_Mall Info on closure.

Sleepaway Camp, Silence of The Lambs, and the Myth of the Trans Serial Killer

By: August Mashburn

There is something about the horror genre that tends to draw in queer audiences. However, there are also some tropes found within the genre and media that are harmful to queer communities. There is of course the trope of “bury your gays” but another very common trope is that of the trans serial killer or the cross-dressing serial killer. There are many examples of these characters and while they often are not transgender the relation to the trans community and the implications that those representations can have cannot be ignored. Buffalo Bill in Silence of The Lambs according to the characters within the film and its creator is not transgender. Hannibal even says as much “Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual, but his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying.” So according to this he is not trans, but he does want to be, and that is what makes him dangerous. Buffalo Bill is also a violent murderer who attacks and skins women to turn them into a suit. The issue here is that just saying, “Well the character isn’t trans,” does not remove the implications that that portrayal has and what it could mean to a viewer. I love Silence of The Lambs, I think it is an incredible horror movie and is very effective in the way that it scares you and causes discomfort, I also think that it is the poster child for problematic portrayals of trans people. Silence of The Lambs is one of a very small subsection of horror movies that was able to secure an academy award and in fact won several, but it also portrays a very harmful stereotype of the sneaky violent trans person, despite what the movie wants you to think.

There are also movies that fall into more of a grey area with a far murkier portrayal and far less clear characters. A primary example of this is the movie Sleepaway Camp, in this film the killer Angela is, at least in the first movie, also ostensibly not transgender. Angela has been forced to live as her “dead” brother Peter, even though Angela is in fact Peter, in the context of the story. Again, in the first movie Angela is not trans, and it makes no mention of her being trans, however, the movie ends with the reveal of Angela completely naked holding a severed head and has a character shout “My god, she’s a man!” This is a far murkier portrayal than that in Silence of The Lambs however, it is still not exactly good. Angela has been forced to live as a gender that is incongruent with her true self and that in conjunction with relentless bullying and abuse has caused her to lash out in violent ways. In some ways this could be seen as an allegory for the trans experience. Feeling trapped presenting in a way that is incongruent with yourself and that only causes you further damage. While this argument does work, it carries with it implications all its own. The idea that the damage caused by being forced to live as the wrong gender by your family and society making someone violent and dangerous is still a somewhat damaging idea to present. Many queer people love Sleepaway Camp, and it is not problematic to like it, however, I do feel it is important to examine it with a critical eye, and to think about the shadows that even the positive aspects hold.

These 2 movies are also not the only examples of this trope, they are simply some of the most infamous. This is also an ongoing trope that continues to be used in movies and murder mysteries, if with less frequency. It is important to look at these movies and what they had to say, because in some ways they are both good movies, but they both have problematic forms of social commentary. As a final note on this topic, it is important to realize the reality of violence in relation to trans people. Trans people are far more often the victims of violence than the perpetrators of it. In fact, trans people are 4 times more likely to be victims of sexual violence or other forms of violence than cis people. Additionally, the life expectancy for transwomen of color is 35 years old. It is important to consider these facts and this context when thinking about the portrayal of trans people in media and the damage that these horror movies can cause. For a more in-depth discussion of trans issues in horror movies I recommend the Deadmeat podcast linked here: https://youtu.be/YgpvW9TxWds.

Works Cited

Demme, Jonathan. The Silence of the Lambs. Orion Pictures, 1991.

Hiltzik, Robert. Sleepaway Camp. Columbia Pictures, 1983.

Loyal, thisisloyal.com. “Transgender People Over Four Times More Likely Than Cisgender People to Be Victims of Violent Crime.” Williams Institute, 31 Mar. 2021, williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release.

The Valley Camp: A Haunted Ship and The Ghost Hunter Who Investigated It

By: Caitlyn S.

I grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan – a little bordertown right next to Canada in the Upper Peninsula.  The town is small, but it has a rich history and is shaped by tourism and the shipping industry.  The most iconic tourist attraction is the Soo Locks, the aquatic gateway between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes, enabling seven to ten thousand ships to pass through every shipping season.  With so many ships passing through, the Sault has a rich maritime history, so if you visit downtown you would be greeted by The Valley Camp.  The Valley Camp is a 550-foot long freighter that is parked in the marina and operates as a museum.  It was built in 1917 and operated for almost fifty years before being retired.  Interestingly, nothing particularly spooky happened while the ship was operating.  Perhaps it is the objects inside that cause the hauntings today.

The Valley Camp is home to relics of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a ship that sank during a November storm in 1975.  Some suggest that the items from the ship that were recovered and displayed in the museum are haunted.  Employees at the Valley Camp cite hearing or seeing things.  Maranda Crawford, the Sault Historic Sites Office Manager, recalled in an article by UP Matters, “One time I was up in one of the coal passer’s bedrooms and it was before we were open for the season, we were cleaning the room and stuff, and one of the lights was blinking. So, I unscrewed it and set it on the bed and not touching anything on the bed, it lit up and went out and I have never been back in the room since.“ 

Due to these sightings, paranormal investigators have brought their equipment to the ship to explore and see what haunted things it holds.  I am lucky enough to know one of the hunters who boarded the ship and Upper Peninsula Paranormal Research Society co-founder Tim Ellis.  I conducted an interview about his experience on the ship as well as his general experience exploring the haunted Sault and other locations.

Q: What got you interested in exploring the ship in particular?

A: We had people coming to us if we had ever heard stories of the Valley Camp being Haunted.  And the truth of it is, back then, we never had heard anything about a possible ghost or hauntings on the ship.  But more and more people kept coming to us with experiences and said we should investigate the ship.  One thing led to another and we were invited on board for our first of many investigations on the Valley Camp.

Q: What did you hear or see while on the ship?

A: Over the years we have had the chance to investigate the Valley Camp and during those times witnessed a number of weird and unexplainable things.  We have witnessed what are known as shadow figures twice on the ship.  Once in the theater room walking back and forth, and the other in the galley area where the workers would have eaten their meals.  It was standing in the doorway and then gone as fast as we saw it.  One member had a piece of coal thrown at him in the coal room area, when no one was behind him that could have thrown it.  But our biggest catch there was the Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) we captured.  Two of our people were down in the coal room area asking questions and doing an audio recording.  On playback you hear a cough in the background and you hear one of our guys say….”Did you hear that?  Some just Coughed.”  Then the other person says, “or it sounded like someone coughing.”  And just as she is saying that, we captured a male voice saying right over the top of her words, “I am coughing.”

Q: What is your theory on where ghosts/haunted objects come from?

A: It’s all about the energy.  The energy that is attracted to a location or an object.  They / The Energy is there for a reason.  A familiar place that made them happy when they were alive.  An object that made them feel safe, etc.  Or even a tragic event can cause an energy / entity / spirit to stay in a location.  Unfinished business, not ready to cross over, many reasons that could keep someone attached to a place or location.

Tim Ellis will be attending an event in Ann Arbor in March, along with Tim Woolworth, in March.  I am including a link below for the event, called Pawtographs Parafest IV.  I am also including a link to a song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a haunting and emotional tune that might just give you goosebumps.

Further Reading:

https://www.upmatters.com/news/local-news/eastern-up/the-haunted-history-of-ss-valley-camp/

https://www.michigan.org/article/trip-idea/things-you-may-not-know-about-soo-locks#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20between%20seven%20and,to%20Lake%20Huron%20and%20beyond.

http://www.pawtographsforpooches.com/

A Sleepwalking Demon

By: Alicia Clark

When I was younger, I was known for sleepwalking. 

This was something I eventually outgrew, however, the stories from my friends have and will never go away. Although most of the stories are seemingly not harmful, one story in particular stands alone: the night of my friend’s birthday party.

It was August in 2013, and my friend was turning 10. She had invited me and some of our friends to come spend the night at her house. I was so excited to go, in fact, it would’ve been my first time sleeping over at a friend’s house. I mean, I was only 8; I had only had people come to MY house for a sleepover. Through the days leading up to it, I became a little nervous; my friend had told me a couple days before that “oh, my house is old and haunted by all the dead people around it”. This terrified me as I was scared of everything, but my mother assured me that I would be fine, so I went.

Now about this house because there are some things you must know. First, this house was known to be the oldest in town. And second, to describe the location of it, it was just a house down from the church and relatively close to a graveyard.

Anyway, the night had come, and I really had had a blast, but it was time for us all to go to bed. Due to the number of girls spending the night, we all had to sleep in the living room area. I believe I was the first to fall asleep as my friends were hoping to see me sleepwalk. I had told them this doesn’t happen every night, and only happens on occasion. But whether they stayed up or not, I eventually, somewhere throughout the night, started to sleepwalk, even though I had told them I probably wouldn’t.

At what probably was around 3 am, it began. It started with me sitting up and calling out my friend’s name “Makayla”, then I got up, and started to walk in circles around the room. I was said to have repeated the phrases “mom said no” and “I’m scared” numerous times before going back to lay down. 

The next time things happened wasn’t necessarily related to sleepwalking. My friend told me that it wasn’t even five minutes later, and I had sat back up. Next, they said I had controlled the lights; the light switch was one of those that had a bar and you could push it up or down, depending on the brightness you preferred. They said it started as me turning the light from off to very dim. Each time this happened, the light increasingly got brighter as it went on and off. Then all of a sudden it stopped, and I had laid back down. 

The third and final “event” that occurred started by my friends waking up to me banging my hands on the wall countless times screaming “get out”. This banging woke up her mother who was in her room which was right down the hall. They tried to make me stop by calling my name, but it was useless. They decided on sliding a pillow in between the wall and me, so I could potentially stop hitting it. They said the banging came to a halt when I had suddenly stopped, in which I then fell straight backwards onto the air mattress.

I had hit my head on the floor when I had finally woken up. I woke up in a panic as my friends gathered around me. I remember being super sweaty, but at the same time, feeling like ice was coursing through my veins. I also had this huge headache that lasted for the next couple of days, and I had developed a massive goose egg on the back of my head.

Shortly after this incident, my friend and her family had moved across the state. Since then, I am left wondering what actually happened that night? Was it just a weird dream I had that caused me to do this? Or could something have MADE me do this? Could my friends have made it all up? Could the house have been responsible? Over Thanksgiving Break, I decided to look for this house on Zillow, as one does. I ended up finding the house; what I found was it was completely run down. The house truly looks abandoned and looks a lot more haunted than I remember.

Here’s a link to the Zillow of the house.

I guess I’ll never know what truly happened that night, but all I know is something wasn’t right.

The Garfield Horrorverse

By: Jahnavi E.

Garfield might be America’s favorite cat, but he’s my least favorite. I didn’t always feel so strongly about Garfield, in fact for most of my life I never even really thought about this lasagna-loving feline. However, the internet has a funny way of taking these seemingly mundane things and completely flipping them on their heads. But I’m getting ahead of myself. My first encounter with the world of Garfield horror happened during a late night with a couple of friends. We were on call when someone suggested we watch a YouTube video together. If I had known what I was getting into I would’ve logged off the call right then, but I was none the wiser and apparently also had nothing better to do with my time. The video, as it would turn out, was 80 minutes long and titled “What The Internet Did To Garfield.” It fully analyzed the history of the Garfield comic and the rich, very creepy internet culture surrounding the cat. It also, as it would happen, completely changed my perspective on the comic. What makes this Garfield conspiracy so terrifying is just how prevalent Garfield is in our lives. My distaste for and fear of this cat might be unreasonable, but when you know to look there quite literally is no escaping Garfield. Just take a look at this book I randomly found in the window of a bookstore.

Garfield book I found in the window of a bookstore.

The Garfield Horrorverse, as I like to call it, is much more expansive than one would expect, but there seems to be one recurring idea—Garfield is some sort of horrifying creature that his owner Jon must defend against, either that or the entire comic is one of Jon’s many schizophrenic episodes. Take the fake video game “Garfield Gameboy’d COMPLETE” for instance. Grossing over 13 million views on YouTube, the video features a playthrough of a fake Garfield video game. In it, the player plays as Jon who must escape a monstrous Garfield who hunts him through the hallways of his own home demanding lasagna. It doesn’t end there though. There are also countless creepypastas and short fan comics and artworks all painting Garfield out to be a monster. There’s even a whole subreddit with over 806k members called r/imsorryjon dedicated to this idea. Even their tagline is terrifying, telling anyone visiting the subreddit to “Expel [their] shallow human form and offer it up to new Garfield!” Who could blame me for finding Garfield terrifying at this point?

But why? What’s the point in turning a beloved fictional cat into a nightmare? To me, this transformation of Garfield presents an interesting picture of internet culture. When so many people gather in one place it’s inevitable that both interesting and strange ideas arise, and the Garfield Horrorverse is only one of many. The Garfield Horrorverse is a classic byproduct of meme culture and one that is so absurd at points that it almost verges on darkly comedic. There’s something about taking a thing as recognizable and beloved as Garfield and turning it into something incredibly dark that is just so impactful. I’ll never forget how I felt when I first watched “What The Internet Did To Garfield” and found myself introduced to this whole internet microcosm. Neither will I forget how I felt when I first saw this incredible masterpiece depicting an angelic Jon vanquishing a monstrous Garfield.

“The Forgiveness of Jon” by u/Rojom

As terrifying as the image is, it’s also beautiful. It made me realize just how many people are dedicating their precious time to pumping out pieces of creative media dedicated to this concept. The Garfield Horrorverse is something that terrifies me while at the same time captivating me. Now, every time I see something Garfield related I can’t help but feel a shiver run down my spine, but I also can’t stop myself from looking.

Works Cited:

Super Eyepatch Wolf, director. What The Internet Did To Garfield. YouTube, 12 Dec. 2021, https://youtu.be/O2C5R3FOWdE.

Lumpy Touch, director. Garfield Gameboy’d COMPLETE. YouTube, 11 May 2019, https://youtu.be/tDqUDt3K5Mk.

Parks and Rec and the Mystery Amphitheater

By: Joey Joppich

The summer after my senior year of high school, I needed money. I decided to apply for a job at my local township parks and recreation department. The job paid a little more than minimum wage, but it was full-time. Some of the general tasks I had were clearing sidewalks, prepping baseball fields, and general upkeep of the roughly 7 parks and related services that we provided. There were 6 full-time workers and 6 seasonal workers, so everyone had to do a bit of everything. One of the special places that we were tasked with upkeeping is called Camp Agawam, a scout campground with cool amenities like a paintball park, a marriage chapel, a disc golf course, and creepiest of all, an amphitheater.

Don’t get me wrong, amphitheaters are cool. The idea of listening to music out on the open hill from a band down at the center is awesome, but this amphitheater was not that. The Camp Agawam amphitheater was a hike back into the woods; my partner and I’s truck could not get to it, so we found it while walking the trails, looking for fallen trees after a storm. As we were walking the trails, we saw through the trees a huge overarching metal protrusion that came out over the stage and close to the hill, as if reaching out to pierce the audience. We walked up onto the stage where there were discarded general band things: a microphone stand bent in half, a frayed extension cord, things like that. As we explored further, we realized that this place had not been used in years. Old wrappers that looked like they were from the 90s littered the grassy hill, degraded by years of wear.

As my partner and I walked around, I couldn’t help but get this creepy feeling. My mind kept wandering to images of concerts happening here, a mile and a half back into the woods. Why would people want to come all the way here for this concert venue? Eventually, we had to leave, so we headed back to the trail to continue around. We were rather lost at this point, so we had to wander a bit, but no big deal. As we were meandering through the thicket, though, I heard music distinctively coming through the trees. At first, I thought it had to be one of the campsites, but then I realized that it was coming directly from the direction of the amphitheater. Not only that, but the music wasn’t exactly campground music. It gave an almost Woodstock vibe, with soft rock and flowy words that I couldn’t quite piece together. My partner heard it too, and we wondered aloud who could be playing it. He began walking back in the direction of the amphitheater, but something told me that that was not a good idea, so I reiterated that we needed to get back to the department office to see what more storm clean-up was needed.

When we arrived back, I asked one of the full-time employees about the amphitheater, curious about its history. He looked at me and asked if I was talking about Wildwood, our community amphitheater, and I said no, the one in Camp Agawam. He seemed like he had no idea what I was talking about, so I turned to another full-timer, yet he also did not appear to recognize it. The first one was invested now, so he suggested that once we were done with clean-up, we go have a look. Near the end of the day, all four of us drove out there, and my partner and I followed the same trail back deep into the woods. Everything was dead silent at this point as the music had stopped playing. When we reached the same clearing, there was no big outcropping, no littered stage, all we saw was some overgrown grass and a rough clearing. My partner and I were stunned. The full-time employees seemed amused but also a bit annoyed as to why they were out there at all. We started frantically looking around, utterly tormented by the fact that there was no amphitheater. Sad and dejected, we filed out of the clearing to make the long trek back to the trucks. As we were leaving, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a bright green shine. I looked down and it was an old aluminum can with the retro “Sprite” font on the front. It was broken and partially deformed. I leaned down to pick it up, but then thought better of it and left it there, ready for the next concert, whenever that may be.

Above: government map of Camp Agawam with the general site of the amphitheater in the black box

Don’t Look This Up

By: Taylor Gaines           

In 2018, there was a trend going around of a horrifying figure. Growing up most people were scared of Bloody Mary and The Boogeyman, while I was scared of Momo. I first heard about Momo when I was in 7th grade. I wasn’t allowed to have Instagram until I reached 7th grade. So many of the kids in my grade were already exposed to the many dangerous and frightening challenges on the internet. I was so excited to finally get Instagram to prove to my friends that I was finally growing up. But, instead of the fun things I was expecting, I was greeted with a demonic looking lady on my timeline with the caption “suicide game”.

As a kid, I was naturally curious so I did what any kid would do and looked more into who Momo was. Me and my brother looked it up while my parents weren’t there, so I knew I could get away with it. Being the ignorant kids we were, we searched up the Momo challenge and clicked several links that would lead us to a world of awful things. I want to say that we had reached the dark web but I wasn’t entirely sure. It took us to a website that prompted us to speak with Momo. Reluctant, but not wanting to look like a chicken in front of my brother, I selected yes. The website started to glitch and then my computer went completely black, next thing you know there was a lady that looked as if she only had a head, with huge bug eyes popping out of her head, a turned up grin, long, stringy messy hair, and a stare that glared into your soul. She began to talk, explaining the challenge and the bad things that would happen if we didn’t complete it. Several text bubbles started to pop up on the screen, with things like “drink a cup of bleach” or “if you don’t harm one of your friends Momo will come for you” just awful things that a kid shouldn’t have to witness. It shook me to my core because I didn’t know whether to believe it or not. I quickly shut the computer and went to sleep. When I went to use it for the next few days messages like that would continue to pop up, each time I would shut my computer, try to pretend like everything’s okay, and go to sleep. I was genuinely scared. I didn’t know if Momo was real or if it was someone on another end harassing me. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to find out.

At some point in time I began contemplating doing some of the commands she prompted in hopes that she would leave me alone. I told my friends and they said they experienced something like that too. It went on for weeks until we actually started to see kids harming themselves on Instagram and other apps like Kik and Oovoo. I didn’t plan on telling my mom because she had finally let me get on social media and I didnt want to get in trouble, but I was scared about what would happen to me if I kept this up without saying anything. One night I stayed up a few hours past my bedtime and was scrolling on my phone. A random link popped up as a notification and I clicked it. It was the same horrible thing that I saw on my computer, only this time there were images and videos of people hurting themselves. After clicking those links I had created a virus on my computer. I was completely shaken and decided to tell my mom about it. She was upset and surprised that I wasn’t being safe on the internet, but nonetheless she wanted to make sure that I was okay. After doing some research my mom found out that the Momo challenge was a hoax created by awful people on the internet to encourage kids to hurt themselves. She found out the challenge was a viral game shared on different messaging services where creeps would lure kids into violence and even suicide. Momo sparked fear in us by creating scary messages and commands to escalate the violence and horror. The image became so popular that it began to randomly appear in the middle of kid shows on YouTube. I was especially scared since it was my first exposure to social media. I didn’t know what to do, who to turn to, or what would happen to me if I didn’t do what she said. Momo revealed to me the dangers of the internet and how to stay safe online.

FWD: CHILDHOOD CHAIN LETTERS [SHARE THIS POST WITH 10 OTHER PEOPLE… OR ELSE…]

By: Jessica Sepsey

Back when I was in fourth and fifth grade, the biggest form of communication between classmates and friends was not through text messages or DMs on social media—but through emails. My friends and I were always emailing each other after school and over the weekends whenever we got the chance to. I still remember how excited I’d be to log-in to my goofy-named Yahoo! email and see how many new messages would pop up in my inbox. And while many messages consisted of typical day-to-day conversations, there was another type of email sandwiched in between them from time to time, and those were known as “Copypasta Chain Letters”.

For those who never had the pleasure of receiving a Copypasta Chain Letter themselves, consider yourselves lucky, for you will never have to experience a “lifetime of bad luck” or “forever have relationship problems” simply for not forwarding an email to at least five or ten other people. Copypasta Chain Letters were essentially copied and pasted messages spread through internet forums and messaging apps (in my case: emails) that attempted to get the recipient to send as many copies of it as possible to other people, thus creating an exponentially growing chain of new readers. These Copypasta Chain Letters ranged from cute and harmless fun (like filling up a calendar year full of birthdays or sending hearts to your friends to let them know you appreciate them) to unsettling and downright creepy (prepare yourself for deadly visitors at night).

Here’s an example of a silly one I once received:

And here’s an example of a “creepy” one:

I find it interesting how the structure of Copypasta Chain Letters, both silly and creepy, were always so similar to each other. They’d typically start somewhere along the lines of “Keep on reading to the end! Don’t stop!” and following the contents of the letter, they then reassure readers that “This is not a joke!!! This is 100% real!!!”. By the end of the letter, they try to bait and manipulate readers into forwarding the message to other people by either promising that their wishes will all come true or threatening that they will be cursed with bad luck, hauntings, death, etc—and for gullible young kids like me and my friends, these tactics worked.

The latter types of emails shown above were my first introduction to “Creepypasta” (“Creepy” + “Copypasta”), and oh boy was my gullible 11-year-old self scared at the prospect of being targeted by vengeful ghosts or killer demons at night. I remember how fast I’d forward these types of chain letters to my friends, and how I’d ask the original sender to please not send anymore of those my way. I would’ve preferred a hundred of the “Financial Abundance Angel” emails than get another Creepypasta in my inbox. I also remember how terrified I was to wake up in the middle of the night even after forwarding those types of emails to my friends, and how I’d frantically survey my room to make sure nothing was lurking nearby and staring back at me.

Looking back at these “creepy” emails now as an adult, it’s quite easy to dismiss them as cheap scare tactics that were incredibly cheesy in nature and obviously fake. But the terror they instilled in my younger self was real, and it took a couple of sleepless nights to finally catch on that these Copypasta Chain Letters were nothing but elaborately planned out spam. Eventually, my classmates and I stopped indulging in these types of emails altogether, and now we can look back and laugh at how ridiculous some of them were.

If you are interested in reading more Creepypasta-styled chain letters, here’s a website I found that has a whole archive of them waiting to be copy and pasted: Scary Chain Letters | Scary For Kids. But be warned, don’t try to read all of them at once, unless you’re hoping for a whole party of ghosts in your room later tonight.