Stephen Hillenburg is one of the better-known names in animation. Born on August 21, 1961, he was not only an animator but also a marine biology educator. He passed away on November 26, 2018. He is best known for shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and SpongeBob SquarePants, the latter of which continues to air to this day. What many people don’t seem to know is that Hillenburg once created an educational film featuring the Bikini Bottomites, using real-world sea creatures that resembled the characters from the show. This project was conceived long before SpongeBob SquarePants debuted in 1999. However, it never gained the same recognition as his 1989 comic book The Intertidal Zone, which later became the inspiration for the show. That’s because the film was…

Chapter 1: The Purity of Corruption A naked holy man stood knee deep in snow on frostbitten legs in front of a tower he did not believe existed. It was a tower of legend that was forever moving that sat atop of a snowy mountain scape for the time being, and was said to grant a wish to whoever reached the top. A gust of icy wind cut into his skin scar covered skin like the many blades that did the same during his holy crusade reminding him of his duty. The duty now halted by the seven window stone tower he had only heard from those he had slain. The holy man’s true name had faded from the world…

Matt and I returned to our hometown after our first semester in college. We arranged to meet at a bar to catch up and trade stories. “How’s UVA?” Matt asked, sipping his glass of Shiraz. “Pretty good,” I replied. “I think I’ll major in physics.” I took a swallow of my beer. “How about you?” “Yale’s everything I hoped for—and more,” Matt answered, “but I still haven’t settled on a major yet. Philosophy maybe, or comparative lit…” Our talk continued like that—matter-of-fact at first, then increasingly nostalgic as the wine and beer flowed. Matt studied me thoughtfully. “We go back a long way, Todd.” I smiled. “Yep, all the way back to first grade.” “First grade with… Mrs. Mohrhusen!” Matt…

My son died yesterday, on an autumn evening, when the wind blew hard and the leaves hid from the first cold. The ambulance arrived too late. Since then, silence scratches my mind. But the worst thing was the wait every night, when he returned. My son died yesterday, but that night he came back to me. At first, I only heard a weak murmur with my name on his lips. A kind voice from the darkness. “I’m fine,” he told me. I saw him at the end of my bed, standing in a corner, barely a shadow. I knew it was him, it couldn’t be a trick of my mind My son died, and he has visited me every day,…

It’s been three years since the day I fled from that abandoned building and discovered the truth about the hanging shadow glitch in ”Luigi’s Mansion”, witnessing that disturbing cutscene. I haven’t been able to sleep at all recently. For those wondering, yes, it was me—the original person who wrote about the shadow. I told my friends about my experience; they believed me and were interested. Yeah, you heard me correctly—they believed what I saw, so I don’t need to pull a cliché right here. But many of them questioned why I decided to break the game before leaving the building. To be honest with you, I don’t know why I broke the game like that. I really wish I had…

When I was eleven years old, my family lived in a small, blue, relatively remote house in northern Sweden. The rear of the house had a small deck facing a dense old-growth pine and spruce forest, while the front had a garage, a shed for firewood, and a fairly large lawn. My little brother, Oskar, had just been born about a month prior, and my parents were beginning to settle into their new routine. On the day in question, my father was away shopping for groceries, while my mother was inside tending to the house and keeping an eye on Oskar, who had colic and demanded a lot of attention. I was outside playing with my toy tractor in the…

I’m sure many of you have heard of the Uncanny Valley effect, for those who haven’t it is essentially the sense of fear or unease a person can feel when they see a creature or object that resembles a human; but there is something about the entity that makes it not look right, think mannequins or robots. However, this fear has caused a lot of debate, mainly about why we have it to begin with; most of our main fears and phobias can be traced back to our ancient ancestors; and what they experienced. We learned to be afraid of the darkness because predators could be hiding in it waiting to kill us. We learned to feel unease at low…

Three years. It has been three years since that incident. Three years since I put myself out there and got into the dating field. Despite it being years since I met her, I hear her voice any time I’m alone, and I often felt her touch on my skin whenever I laid restless in bed. Not a day would go by without me reflecting on the past, which I agree is unhealthy, but it was a force of habit. I feel that I owe you all an explanation. I used to work for a fast-food joint as a cashier. It was a thankless job, with many an irritable customer you could imagine. Or I would sometimes get tasked with cleaning…

After discovering the lost episode of Gilligan’s Island, I started thinking about finding an episode of another favorite show of mine, The Three Stooges. According to a source I found, the episode was called Ghost Encounters. It was supposed to be shown in movie theaters and on television (as episodes were being aired on TV as well and released on DVD, of course). This episode was cut for being disturbing, but before you roll your eyes and think I’m going to talk about characters dying in brutal ways—well, that’s not the case at all, surprisingly. What made it disturbing was the ghost itself. Think about that for a second. The actors—Moe, Larry, and Curly (this was made before Curly had…

(Authors note: This is a rewrite of my first ever pasta from the creepypasta wiki. I hope you all enjoy!) There’s lots of rumors going around our town here, rumors that there’s something or someone in the woods, watching, waiting for people to lose themselves in the oaks and pines before they strike. I’ve heard all the stories, sightings of things in the woods that don’t belong, a man with a goat skull, little grey men, and many other supposed “sightings” of creatures that can’t exist. I remember that the rumors started with the disappearance of Ian Kladaki, way back in 1989 when he went on a hiking and camping  trip with his friends, and although they weren’t the first…