Workshop 2

Emily Massicotte-Finch

Mr. Flood

EWC4U1

May 29, 2019

Research:

A creepypasta is a short piece of horror fiction. The name is a play on the words ‘copypasta’
(copy-paste-a) coming from the computer command copy and paste. This is because these
stories were intended to be passed around forums or other sites across the Internet. Many
people actually kept them in a text file and just re-pasted them wherever and whenever the
mood struck. And so, it follows that creepypasta should be pronounced in a similar way, but that
fact is just ignored now, as most people have decided to just pronounce it the way it looks at this
point. It's hard to pinpoint who began the idea of creepypastas and where they first originated,
because so many stories, at least in the beginning, were posted anonymously. This makes sense,
as the idea of copypastas and creepypastas was to copy and paste them across different places
online, but it makes it incredibly difficult to trace the origins of the genre. However, a website
called King of Wolves used to host most of the original stories, but it has long since deactivated.
Creepypasta.com which is now the main source for writing of this genre launched in 2008. Many
of the stories at this time tended to be short and vague rather than more fully realized stories
that have become the norm in today's age. Most are text only, yet some relate to pictures such
as “Smile Dog” and “Slender Man”. The presence of the image gives us the threat of facing the
same fate as the narrator of the story and brings more realness to it. These stories are typically
written so that you are reading the words of a person who experienced e story first hand. Yet
sometimes they’re told in the third person if it is better for the topic.

The Four Elements of Creepy Pasta:

2.It must be frightening. What makes something scary varies from individual to individual, but
the intent of the story must be to scare.

3. It must seem believable. It couldn’t really have happened… could it?

4. It must be shareable. Otherwise what would be the point?

The Chinese Head Transplant Experiment

Two surgeons based in China gathered a set of eight volunteers to perform the world's
first ever human head transplants. Prior to this the staff had successfully performed this surgery
on thousands of living rats and due to its excellent success, they concluded that the Surgery
could be completed on humans immediately. This experiment was being conducted to test the
possibility of a human head transplants capability of ever being a legitimate medical possibility.
The facility received thousands of applications expressing interest in participating in the
experiment, yet only eight were chosen, allowing the procedure to be completed three times.
These people were chosen based upon the quality of their submitted essay, countless
background and both physical and mental health. Upon their arrival at the Chinese facility the
volunteers were welcomed and quickly rushed to different floors of the hospital, making sure
they never encountered another. They did this because it was thought that If they knew too
much about who they were switching heads with, the results could be nightmarish. They spent a
few days on these floors where they were carefully analyzed and received a series of tests to
ensure all previous medical testing was accurate. These crucial tests took several days, but once
every volunteer passed all the necessary requirements the date for the surgical procedure was
set for the next day. The surgeons and scientists spent the next twenty-four hours getting
everything ready to make medical history.

After several hours of intricate work, the heads had all been completely removed. They rushed
these heads with trailing nerves and vertebrae into frozen pods where they remained until
needed. There was much debate prior to the social boundaries they were willing to cross on who
receives which head, however they decided to constrict it to the same gender and similar age for
their first attempts at such a procedure to produce the most accurate data and limit the
possibility of complications. Each surgery took close to three hours to complete, and at the end
of all six, the crew was exhausted but clapping and cheering engulfed the operating room and
theater from their incredible victor with their experiment so far. The last volunteer was brought
back and sealed into their mirrorless room where they all now remained for several days. The
next few days post-op the crew collected only qualitative data, giving the volunteers the ability
to heal before dragging them through the sequence of tests and meetings they had to endure.

Five days later the surgeons believed that all the participants had healed well enough to begin
testing. They brought them into a large white room one by one for their first meeting since
receiving their new heads. They asked them a series of questions related to their vision,
concerns, any noticeable changes, and then proceeded to follow through will more health tests.
From the volunteers they received many of the same statements about changes within
themselves such as difference in taste buds, thoughts going through their heads and the sounds
of their voice but nobody experienced symptoms such as young Ana. She had something off to
her and wasn’t willing to share much with the group other than a few short sentences. The crew
brushed this off as nervousness or regrets and brought her back to her room where she laid
awake through all hours of the day speaking to herself and writing in her journal.

The next couple of weeks brought more healing and daily checkups. The patients all felt much
more themselves in their new bodies and scored almost identical test results to what they had
got foregoing the procedure. They decided it was now time to unveil the ultimate results to the
volunteers so one by one they brought them to a room with a single full body mirror placed at
the end. Upon reveal an array of emotions were shown from everybody except Ana, who stood
in front of the mirror for longer than any other with a completely straight face. She remained
completely frozen staring at her new appearance. She took a step forward to examine the
distinct line on her neck where her soft almond skin transitioned into a pasty white before
making a quick pivot and marching towards the entrance demanding to be brought back to her
room. Once again, the doctors brushed it off as an estranged way to express her emotions and
continued without too much worry.

One after another each subject showed results that were deemed well enough for release. This
was a very timely task as each participant results varied drastically. Many were in fluctuating
degrees of shock and took months to fully come to terms with reality, but eventually they
discharged everybody into the real world and were left focus on their overall results from the
experiment. Before they began with this however, the scientists took it upon themselves to clean
out the rooms of the subjects in hopes to find more data. The rooms were fairly clean and
nothing was left behind except for a few pairs of socks kicked under the bed and a journal which
they found under the pillow of Ana. The surgeons treated this journal as a jackpot and were
exhilarated with the opportunities the journal gave them. Ana had been the most distant of the
group after the surgery which made it hard to gain true information from her. Along with that,
she also had the most peculiar symptoms, so this was an incredible opportunity to see her true
thoughts.

As the crew started reading the diary, they read the stories of a young girl from Duoyishu village
in China who grew up on a rice farm but eventually chose to move to Texas, USA to study Human
Anatomy which was a passion of hers. It shared how she found out about the facilities Human
Head Transportation Procedure and how conflicting her opinions were about it, but how her love
for science overpowered and she chose to apply as a volunteer against her families wishes. The
emotions of the team quickly turned into distress when they saw the immediate shift in the
sweet girls' daily updates. Her once simple minded, pure thoughts developed into wishes and
dreams of performing horrible crimes. These crimes were explained in so much detail that the
possibility of its actuality were quite alarming. They immediately informed the authorities who
agreed to investigate but did not seem as concerned as they should have been. After they spoke
with the police, they went on to continue reading the diary, hoping it would end up being a joke
or these thoughts were a manifestation that would gradually disappear. However, this further
reading only turned their panic into the utmost fear when they read the horrifying words neatly
written on the final page.

“If my plans succeeded then I will be discharged upon the findings of this journal. I would
like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to perform my ultimate crime. To whoever
receives my haunted mind, surprise! This is a crime that I never thought I would have the ability
to do, stripping someone of their sanity, their wellness, infecting them with my diseased brain. I
thought this might be enough to put my killings to rest, but I think I now feel more inspired than
ever.”
Synthesis 2:

Hide and Don’t Seek

I grabbed my toothbrush and stuck it into my heaping overnight bag I stuffed full for a
Friday night sleepover with my three best friends. Chelsea’s parents were away for the weekend,
so we obviously had to make use of that. I hopped into the car, yelling out for my mom to hurry
up before running out the door. I wish I could just drive on my own, but I only just turned sixteen
a month ago. When she finally joins me in the car, we begin our venture to Chelsea’s house,
which is just a quick eight-minute drive away. I thank my mom and answer her typical mom
questions before I get out of the car. I glance back and as always, she was waiting to blow me a
kiss, I return the gesture and mouth out I love you before darting to the door. I was the last to
arrive so upon my arrival we were ready to go. It was 6pm and we decided to just relax and talk
to each other for a bit and then go get some snacks for the night. Our talking lasted a lot longer
than expected, but hey, what can you expect from a group of teenage girls. We left for the
corner store just down the street at nearly 9pm and all threw in $10, giving us $50 to get our
goodies. At the end of our haul there was a pile consisting of potato chips, ice cream, chocolate,
gummies, fruits and cookies. We all walked back to the house carrying a bag in one hand and a
cheap, gross cup of 7-11 coffee that had probably sat there for several hours longer than its
supposed to keep us up for the long night ahead of us. We placed our groceries on the table in a
photographic way to show off each item and post it with the hashtag goals on VSCO. While
scrolling for a movie to watch on Netflix, Brianna came across a thread on Instagram of a bunch
of spooky sleepover activities to do. We put down the remote and instead, scrolled through the
pictures deciding on what scary games we were going to try. The post was filled with a lot of the
mainstream games such as Bloody Mary, Charlie Charlie, Light as a feather stiff as a board, but at
the very end they found one they have never heard of before and it interested them more than
any other. Brianna sent the photo to their group chat in case they decided to do another game
later and screenshotted the one they decided on to have easy access to the rules and directions.
The game was named “Hide and Don’t Seek” and consisted of summoning a deadly spirit into
your home and then trying to stay hidden from it until 3am. If you remain hidden until 3am they
will leave your home, if they find you however, the demon will do whatever they want with you.
The rules instructed for us to start the summoning at exactly 12:01 with all doors closed and
lights and electronics off, so we took advantage of our last hour by scrolling through Instagram
sharing memes and gossip. We also used this time to eat a vast majority of our snacks because
we wouldn't be able to once the clock struck midnight. At first, I wasn’t scared but as the time
got closer and closer, I found myself creating countless worst-case scenarios in my mind. These
nerves really escalated when Brianna pulled up the screenshot that told us how to perform this
summoning. The instructions were that each participant must gather inside a bathroom with a
mirror and yell “Join Us! “ in unison at each wall, beginning with the mirrored one. You then
repeat this step until the sink begins to let out a very light drip, this is how you know the demon
is ready to play and this is also the beginning of your one-minute countdown to find your hiding
place. Luckily, Chelsea had a huge master bathroom so all of us could fit comfortably. At 11:50
we all started to prepare for the game by turning off tv’s and lights throughout the house as well
as closing all door and windows. On my way into the bathroom my hands were completely wet
from wiping the sweat from my dripping forehead and upper lip. Nobody else seemed to be as
affected as I was, I looked around and they were all laughing together excited to take part in the
activity. I have always been a baby when it comes to stuff like this though, I would rather eat a
dirty sock then sit through an entire horror movie, so I brushed off my fears and tried my best to
just live in the moment. The lights flipped off soon after and Brianna whispered that it was time
to begin. We started the clockwise motions and spoke simultaneously but after several
rotations, nothing was happening. I was just bout to give up when from behind me I heard the
faintest pitter-patter falling into the concrete bowl. Silence fell over the room causing the quiet
noise to appear much louder. We all looked at each other, too scared to make a sound, but our
frightened eyes spoke a thousand words. I started running around the house looking for a place
to keep hidden for the remaining hours of the game and while doing so I attempted to stifle my
laughter. This was so ridiculous, it couldn’t possibly be real, but still I sank down behind the
couch which was my chosen position. From the other room I heard one of my friends yelling for
everyone to come out, saying how stupid she thought the idea was and that she wasn’t going to
waste her time for nothing, but in the midst of her statement she stopped. I mean, the rules of
the game were basically that of hide and go seek and it isn’t hard to find someone yelling in the
center of a room, but I still didn’t believe that five teenage girls were capable of summoning a
demon so I tricked myself into thinking something else. Something much more positive than the
fact that my friend lost a game of hide and go seek to an evil spirit.

After about an hour my eyes were getting heavy and I was struggling to keep them open, the
only thing keeping my eyes open was the fear of getting caught. Sitting here for an hour without
any distractions really caused me to go deep into my thoughts and once again I was petrified.
The floorboards above me started creaking letting me know the locations of one of my friends
who must have been in one of the upstairs bedrooms. I thought the movement was just a quick
shift of positions, but the footsteps started getting farther and quieter. Whoever it was, was
walking around up there! All I wanted was to yell up to them telling them to go back to their
spot, but that would only put the both of us is danger. So instead, I remained seated and prayed
that this was in fact not what it seemed, that the sink coincidentally started leaking like some
taps do. However, when spine chilling screams echoed through the entire house originating from
the footsteps, I finally accepted the reality of my situation. Tears filled my eyes and mixed with
my sweat, leaving a salty taste on my tongue. I squinted my eyes to focus on the clock above me
and I still had an hour and a half-left till I could even attempt to figure out what happened to my
best friends. I bit my tongue and did everything I could to keep calm.

My eyes surprisingly didn’t run dry this entire time and a steady waterfall of silent tears
streamed down my face. When the clock reached 3am I remained seated until five minutes after
to make sure I was completely safe. Even after these five extra minutes my whole body shook
when I started to stand up. I began with a whisper, calling the names of my friends but when
only three of us met up in the living room, these whispers turned into desperate screams from
all of us, begging for the other two to appear. We searched the entire house countless times but
when the sun began to rise from the ground, we lost all hope. Exhaustion was no match for the
immense grief we all felt. We sat and wondered how a simple sleepover game could end like
this. How would we explain this to anybody, nobody would believe our story. In search for
answers, we decided to google the game and see other people's results with it, but after hitting
search, nothing appeared. Brittany went into her camera roll to look for the screenshot she had
taken of the game, but it was gone. We all checked our group chat looking for the post that was
sent there yesterday, but there was no history of it ever being there. Search after search brought
no trace of the game which stole two of our friends from us.

I called my mom to pick me up and left without saying a word, I tried bringing up what happened
the entire way home and the days following but each time stopped right before because I knew
she wouldn’t believe me. The missing girl's parents contacted the police about their children and
a search was conducted, but the case remains unsolved to this day. I haven’t spoken to my
friends since then, because even though I will never forget that night, the sight of them is a
constant reminder of what I've been through. I don’t know if any of us will ever share our story,
but I know that I will never be the same.
 Resources

https://www.bustle.com/p/13-spooky-podcasts-about-history-that-will-hook-you-from-episode-
one-15725593

https://www.creepypasta.com/ufaqs/what-is-creepypasta-and-where-do-these-stories-come-
from/