Cryptids/Urban Legends

Reports stated she and her cat had vanished with little to no trace - what little evidence they did had were the insubstantial and few somewhat unusual and corrupted photos on her phone.

Yo! I, too, would love to bring that old creepypasta vibe back, and would LOVE to see this become a community effort, with more and more authors building on top of what the ones before have already established. If anyone wants to continue the narrative beyond what I've written here, PLEASE send me a message or comment on my profile or smth, as I'd love to add even more to it! Here's what I've written thus far, going off of Melgor's reply:

When Lindsay Croft, twenty-one-year-old resident of Dale Creek, West Virginia, discovered the photo, it spread like wildfire across the small town, speculation and fear buzzing on the lips of the jostled townsfolk.

“How am I supposed to know what it is? I've never seen the picture before in my life, never seen the...whatever the heck that...thing in the picture is, before, either,” Lindsay said in an interview with the local news. Miss Croft went on to explain that she'd found the camera, where the photo had come from, in a yard sale. “Yeah, I thought it was cute. Vintage, you know? Good price too. But then, y'know I get home, and I turn it on and...and this”—she held up the picture—“just- just slides out of the- the photo compartment thingy, as if I’d just taken it.”

When asked how she’d found out about the yard sale, she explained, “I was just driving home from work. Typical Tuesday. I work up at the Sassafras Junction Diner; I’d spilled a pot of hot coffee all over myself, so they let me go early. As I was driving, I noticed this…little dirt path, branching off from the road, cutting into the woods.”

“And then what happened?” the reporter asked.

“Well, I got the strangest feeling, like…like I just had to go on that path. It was supernatural, almost—like I had no other option. So, despite being drenched in coffee, I drove up there, found a cute little house at the end of it, and found the yard sale where I bought this.” She gestured to the camera dangling from her neck on a strap. “The house was old, but well-kept. From what I could tell, the only people running the sale were these two little girls—twins, I think—who wore these matching black dresses—long, sweeping things that looked like they were from some sort of Gothic era.”

“And did you ask where their parents were, or…?”

“No. Didn’t even think to. It’s weird in hindsight, isn’t it? But in the moment it was just sort of a sense of… Normal, kind of. Calm. Peace—like nothing was amiss. Like I was supposed to be there, and I knew they’d been waiting for me—just for me. Then that supernatural force washed over me again, told me to buy the camera. I did what it said without a second thought. I'm not crazy, by the way,” she added with a chuckle.

When the Press reached out to the house Lindsay Croft claimed to have obtained the camera from, they were met with a structure that looked to have been abandoned for several decades, decimated under years upon years of neglect. Furthermore, there was no path connecting the home to the road, and according to public record, the house’s last resident was a widowed, childless woman named Tabitha Vérkroft—who had, according to local legend, vanished without a trace in the year 1951.

The morning after her interview, Lindsay Croft was reported missing by her mother, Mary Croft. The family cat, affectionately named Inky for his black fur, had vanished, too.

“I just want my baby back,” Mary Croft tearfully told the Press. “I just want to know where she is. I just want to know she’s alive. I just want to know she’s ok. We were all laughing around the dinner table the evening before she…she…” She paused, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose. “I just don’t know what on earth could have happened in such a short amount of time. She’s never been one to sneak out of the house, much less…” The words silenced in the woman’s throat, cries escaping her mouth in their place.

Police state that Lindsay Croft left the residence at around 2:17 AM, driving until she reached where she’d supposedly seen the path branch off from the road. She then set fire to the vehicle with gasoline, and abandoned it.

A search party was dispersed in and around Dale Creek; two days later, Lindsay’s flip phone was found, discarded on the forest floor a few hundred yards from the house where Tabitha Vérkroft once lived. On the device, rescuers discovered several dozen pictures, seemingly taken in rapid succession, from the night of Lindsay’s disappearance—all of them from 3:33 AM. Most of the pictures were corrupted beyond comprehension, but in some, a silhouette with angelic wings and tentacles for arms appeared visible—only just—through the discordant distortions.

It has been a week since Lindsay Croft’s disappearance, and her absence continues to be felt throughout the close-knit town of Dale Creek, leaving the community perplexed and devastated.

Hey. I haven't been active here in a hot minute. Melgor, do you still have that picture? It's not showing up on the forum anymore.

I just wrote a horror story that's exactly this vibe. I posted it on my blog, maybe you wanna check it out :)

https://blog.spacehey.com/entry?id=1222700