Print version - fanzine project - year 2

2. Page 12
- Back Cover
Page 1
- Cover

3. Page 11
In the summer of 2013, I found myself
driving home alone on highway 902 from a
party. It was almost midnight, and needless
to say it was pitch black. As was usual at
night, I was on edge. I had the radio off, and
could hear nothing but the muffle roar of
tires on pavement and the dull hum of the
engine. I stole a glance into the middle rear
view mirror, and saw nothing but darkness
through the back window.
I know that I looked backward and saw nothing. I’m sure of it. Just the seeming-
ly endless blackness of the night. I remember it so clearly because not 10 sec-
onds later a car passed me to the left. Headlights on. I had one of those sudden
adrenaline rushes like when you think you see a person outside your bedroom
window when it’s just a tree, or when you start awake at night with the feeling
of falling. Ten seconds earlier, nothing had been behind me. Suddenly, a car. I
drove the rest of the way home shivering and knowing something was off.
The next morning, I found two sets of scratches near the back of my van. One
was on the left rear, one was on the right. The car was pretty old. They could
have been there for months, but that was the first time that I distinctly remem-
bered seeing them.
Two dormmates in college were in the same science class. The teacher had just
reminded them about the midterm the next day when one dormmate— let’s
call her Julie—got invited to a party by the hottest guy in school. The other
dormmate, Meg, had pretty much no interest in going and, being a diligent stu-
dent, took notes on the material that would appear on the midterm. After spend-
ing all her time flirting with her date, Julie was totally unprepared for her test.
At the end of the day, Julie spent hours getting ready for the party while
Meg started studying. Julie tried to get Meg to go, but Meg was insistent
that she needed to study and pass the test.
Julie went to the party and had the time of her life with her date. She headed
back to the dorm around 2 a.m. and decided not to wake Meg. She went to bed
nervous about the midterm and decided she would wake up early to ask Meg for
help.
In the morning, Meg was lying on her stomach, apparently sound asleep. Julie
rolled her over to reveal Meg’s terrified face. Julie, concerned, turned on the desk
lamp. Meg’s study stuff was still open and had blood all over it. Meg had been
slaughtered. Julie, in horror, fell to the floor and looked up to see, written on the
wall in Meg’s blood, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?”

4. Page 10 Page 3
In hindsight, there are two possibilities for what happened that night. Possibility
one. By some glitch in reality, or something paranormal, this other car had some-
how appeared behind me within 10 seconds of me checking my mirror. Like some
weird ghost crap or something. However, the second option is what makes my
blood run cold whenever I consider it.
It didn’t even occur to me until months after the fact, but it makes me dread
driving alone at night even more. Possibility two. The car was normal. It had ap-
proached me from the rear and passed me to my left. However, something large,
and wide, and as black as the night had been clinging to the rear of my car, obscur-
ing my view through the window and leaving deep scratches on the sides.
And I had inadvertently driven it home with me.
Abeautiful young girl is left home alone with only her dog to protect her.
On the news that night, they announced there is a serial killer on the loose in
the area. Before she goes to bed, she locks all the doors and tries to lock all the
windows, but the one in the basement won’t lock. She decides to leave it un-
locked, but locks the basement door and goes to bed. Her dog takes its custom-
ary place under her bed. In the deep of night she awakens to a dripping sound
coming from her bathroom. Half-awake, the girl feels the comforting lick from
her dog and falls back to sleep. She reawakens to the dripping sound, reaches
her hand down to the dog where she feels the reassuring lick and falls back to
sleep. Once more, she awakens to the dripping sound. She reaches her hand
down and feels the lick of her dog.
Now curious about the dripping sound, she gets up and slowly walks towards
the bathroom, the dripping sound getting louder as she approaches. She reaches
the bathroom and turns on the light. She is greeted by a horrific sight; hanging
from the shower nozzle is her dog with its throat slit open and its blood drip-
ping into the bathtub.
Something on the bathroom mirror catches her eye; she turns around. Written
on the wall in her dog’s blood are the words “Humans can lick too.”
My husband and I were laying in bed one night when we heard a noise. Nothing
crazy, just a small rustling noise. We argued over who should check it out, decided
it was nothing and then tried to go back to sleep. Heard the noise again. What the
hell? “You go!” “No, YOU go!”
While we were arguing (in whispers because my daughter’s bedroom had an ad-
joining door) we heard it again near the foot of our bed. I turned on my phone to
use as a light and saw my daughter on the floor. She was on all fours, cocked her
head, turned her face toward the light at a most disturbing angle, and then FUCK-
ING SKITTERED on all fours back into her room and into her bed. My husband
and I were absolutely horrified/terrified/pissing ourselves. She was sleepwalking
(crawling) and had no recollection.
She did creepy sleepwalky things after that for years. Usually while we were watch-
ing scary movies or lying in bed in the dark. Kids are the worst.
My Baby

5. Page 4 Page 9
A ghoul is a foul undead creature that orig-
inates from Arabian folklore. Described as
a type of demon and even jinn, these mon-
sters are said to dwell in graveyards and oth-
er uninhabited areas. According to folklore,
they are crafty shapeshifters and take on the
forms of animals in order to lure unwary
people into their territory so that they may
devour them. Due to their nature of feeding
on human flesh and lingering in graveyards,
ghouls have sometimes been misconceived
as being related to vampires or zombies.
However, they are not.
Beware of the Nocnica, or night hag, who is
probably the most frightening monster on
this list. Composed of shadow, the Nocni-
ca is an evil spirit who visits people during
sleep to draw their life force. Those who
sleep on their back are especially vulner-
able, as she will sit on their chest while
slowly sucking their life out over the course
of many nights. Her favorite victims are
defenseless infants. In fact, she is to blame
for babies having trouble sleeping at night.
Their cries are due to the night hag torment-
ing them….
There once was a 10-year-old girl with braids. The girl had been wearing her
braids in a ponytail for the longest time, and the braids were old, at least two to
three months old, and the girl’s mother never took them down to wash them.
The girl had been complaining to her mother about having a headache for
about two weeks. Her mother just brushed it off, assuming that the girl had just
bumped her head on something. One morning, while getting ready for school,
the child again began complaining to her mother. Again her mother brushed her
off. At school, the girl told her teacher that her head was hurting. The teacher
assumed that the braids were too tight in the child’s hair and attempted to let the
ponytail down. When she removed the hair piece and let the braids loose, the
teacher saw a spider in the child’s hair.
and the spiders were eating her scalp. The girl was rushed to the hospital, where
she later died.
The spider had laid eggs in the child’s hair

6. Page 8 Page 5
Common throughout Poland and other Slavic
countries is the tale of Baba Yaga, an old witch
who lives in the forest, waiting for someone to
get lost and stumble upon her hut, which sits on
chicken legs and is surrounded by a fence com-
posed of human bones. The keyhole on her door
is filled with sharp teeth. When she catches you,
she will kill and eat you, adding your bones to her
fence. Her favorite meal? Small children.
If you are ever stuck wandering the woods at night,
be wary of this vampire-like creature that can
transform into an owl to appear unnoticed. When
one does meet a Strzyga in its true form, it may be
too late, as the undead being sucks the blood of
humans and sometimes even devours their insides.
Strzyga are born human, but die prematurely and
return to haunt the living. Polish peasants once
believed that if a child was born with teeth, it would
become a Strzyga.
Although not the meanest monster on this list,
you would still be well advised not to cross paths
with a Leshy. It’s a giant woodland spirit who can
shapeshift into anything. Oftentimes, Leshy leave
people alone, although they are known to lead
travelers astray and sometimes abduct children.
Some people believe they are evil, while others just
think they are moody. I wouldn’t take the chance
to find out.
One summer day in Southampton, New York, a woman pulled into a gas station.
As the attendant pumped gas, the woman told him she was in a hurry to pick up
her daughter, who had just finished an art class in East Hampton.
A well-dressed man walked over and started talking to her. He explained that his
rental car had died, and he needed a ride to East Hampton for an appointment.
She said she would be happy to give him a ride. He put his briefcase in the back-
seat and said he was going quickly visit the men’s room.
The woman looked at her watch and suddenly panicked. She drove off quickly,
having forgotten that the man was coming back to the car for a ride.
She thought nothing of him again until she and her daughter pulled into their
driveway. The woman saw his briefcase and realized she had forgotten him. She
opened the briefcase, looking for some form of identification so that she could
notify him about his belongings. Inside she found nothing but a knife
and a roll of duct tape.

7. Page 6 Page 7
Q1. Do you have an interest in reading about urban legends and creepy pas-
tas and why?
Yes, I enjoy reading urban legends and creepy pastas as they come across as
mysterious and engage my curiosity due to the fact with many of them it can
be hard to tell if there’s truth behind them or not. But also I love horror and
anything that can scare me a bit and reading something that sounds horrify-
ing but could be real is the best way to do this I find, such as watching films
with a true story.
Q2. What do you think of the whole idea of urban legends and myths? do you
believe that these stories are true?
I do enjoy reading them however I typically struggle to find some true par-
ticularly those more like the creepy pastas that have come around in more
recent times due to the internet and online communities that generally don’t
have any proof but people claiming it happened to them and images, which
to me is like believing the stories in the bible which in reality probably nev-
er happened, however urban legends that follow crypto zoology or cryptids
such as big foot and the Chupacabra seem more realistic to me being around
for so long but also since animals such as the giant squid which once was a
myth is now a real thing.
Q3. If you were to choose your favorite creepy pasta, urban legend, or horror
story what would it be and why?
I love reading horror stories and things that make you feel uneasy such as
creepy pastas however urban legends but more the cryptids really engage me
as they come across more mythical and if they were to be real could be terri-
fying, plus there have been cases where they have been proved true.
Q4. Do you think that reading to much horror stories and creepy pastas is
bad for you, and why?
I don’t think that they are really bad for you unless they make it hard to sleep
or you generally believe in them and live cautiously due to this, but reading
more real horror stories such as serial killers and horrific accidents I believe
could in time be bad, as its something you may get to involved in researching
and depending on your mental state could in turn rub off on you even.
Q5. What is the scariest urban legend that you have read or heard about, and
why is this?
To me the scariest urban legend is the “Russian sleep experiment” as this is
one that sounds so realistic but also really in-humane, going in to detail on the
effects of the experiment and how the people were really no longer people by
the end. This is also things that could possibly go on un-known to the pubic
on political prisoners or may have happened especially around the time of the
Second world war.
Q6. Do you think there is any general meaning behind urban legends, and why?
I believe that there is a chance that these are made to make people cautious of
certain things such as the Kraken was a myth made to make sailors stay clear of
stormy waters for safety, but also they are more likely made for fun and also for
recognition.
Q7. What would you consider to be an urban legend?
Something that could or could not be true but also gains recognition through
fear, and has a typical horror feel to it.
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