Alchememe : Who needs sleep? Pt. 1

Yeah, seriously. Who needs to sleep? 

Hey, everybody! Alchemilla here. Today, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite varieties of nightmare fuel!

First, a little background about me.

1. I'm a scaredy cat. I have a major phobia of public bathrooms for no logical reason. At night, windows in my house MUST be covered to avoid me accidentally catching a creepy face peeking in the windows. (I live on the 2nd floor, btw.) I can't watch any kind of stop-motion animation without getting the heebie-jeebies. I have a myriad of neurosis and paranoia regarding creepy stuff.

2. I am a massive horror fan. I apologetically love Stephen King and Clive Barker. Silent Hill ranks up there on one of my 3 favorite games of all time. I'm drawn in by scary stories, even though I know they mess me up in the dark of the night. It's not that I like to be scared- jump scares annoy the crap out of me because they're cheap, and I have to look away when anything gross or hard to watch happens on TV. I think I'm interested in the human drama that goes along with eldritch horrors, but I don't know if that's all of it.

Anyway, all this comes is just in explanation as to why I am so drawn to creepypasta.

This is me. This is soon to be you.

Are you unfamiliar with creepypasta? Maybe you remember Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark from your childhood? They're just like that. Sometimes they're stupid. Sometimes they're incredibly disturbing. Sometimes they're sad. But they're all intended to freak you out when you're sitting in your room after you should be in bed, and are instead reading them.

Part of what I think is cool about these stories is that they're usually short, and some of them are brilliantly written to give you a scare. Plus, most are written by anonymous people from the internet, so basically people like you! 

Interested? Well, you can ruin your sleep schedule here. -> creepypasta.com

A few of my favorites (You should read the stories first!):

1. In the Mirror (http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/In_the_Mirror)
       I'll start with one that I don't find scary at all. In fact, for some reason, this is just so sweet to me.

2. The Portraits (http://www.creepypasta.com/the-portraits/)
       I think that a monster/threat that simply watches and waits is way more frightening than one that is more animalistic and attacks right away. I also like a twist ending that doesn't explain. It's elegant.

3. Candle Cove (http://www.creepypasta.com/candle-cove/)
       This one is interestingly written, in a message board style, and the increasing uneasiness has one heck of a wham ending. Before you ask, no, I have not watched any of the videos that have been based on this particular creepy story. I enjoy sleeping a little too much for that. Look them up on YouTube if you like seeing 4am so much.

You can go ahead and archive binge on the others on some of the other text stories over at creepypasta.com, but keep in mind that there might be typos and such- it's user generated content. But, I think that is what makes it so interesting.

Next week, I'll be talking about another creation of the internet that keeps me up nights.

See you then!