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It's late at night, and you're returning home from the nearby convenience store. This is a commonplace thing, so at this point you're just going through the motions. However, something is different about this night. Something is off.

Upon nearing your home, you notice movement out of the corner of your eye. And then:

"Hello."

The voice comes from a small figure that slowly emerged from the shadowy brush nearby. As the figure enters the vicinity of your porch, your automatic porch lights turn on. The figure appears to be a child, no more than 8 or 9 years-old. You begin to speak as you step closer to the child, but you stop in your tracks. The child gazes up at you with eyes as black as coal. It was like looking through a vortex, as if nothing existed there but death.

A deep, clenching wave of fear flows over you, and you shakily try to move by the child. But the child immediately moves to stand in front of you.

"May I use your phone? I need to call my mom." The child speaks as if the words mean nothing to him. He is clear and concise.

You shake your head, the sense of fear merely growing and becoming nauseating. You quickly move past the child and head towards the house.The sound of your footsteps is joined by another as the child walks after you. Its pace suggests a willpower and motive incomprehensible to you.

"Let me come in." The voice sounds forceful and impossible now. "Please." Your pace quickens as you head up the stairs.

"Please."

You reach the door and open it quickly, now hearing the child's footsteps on the wood of your porch.

"Please."

The voice is nearly at your back as you enter your house. Just before slamming the door, you see the child staring up at you, its black, empty eyes reflecting neither light nor emotion.

This is a common story among those who have come across Black Eyed Kids (or BEKs). They typically approach people at night, when no one else is around. Sightings and experiences aren't restricted to one area, but can be in any city across the world, as long as there are one or two people alone on a dark night.

People notice that BEKs' speech patterns seem off, as if the child has the brain of an adult. In every instance of interaction with them, they will attempt to get the person alone with them in some way, usually by approaching them near their home. The person always feels a deep sense of fear that they can't quite pin down and understand, as if a primal part of their psyche is telling them to flee the child immediately. When the person escapes the BEK, the expression on the child's face is usually one of anger.

What do the BEKs seek? Why are they so adament upon getting people alone? No one has an answer to this, merely speculation. Is it because anyone who accepts a BEK into their home has never lived to tell the tale? That's anyone's guess. Some people think the children are searching for people to eat. But that's merely one theory among dozens of others. In any case, whatever their motive may be, it's nothing close to benevolent  There is a part of humans that immediately feels threatened by the children, a fear of something that goes deeper than what our eyes display in front of us. Maybe the BEKs are actually so monstrous and wrong that our minds are forced to block them out and replace them with a much more innocent form.

There lies the horrifying mystery behind the BEK. The fear of those empty black eyes is nothing compared to the fear of the unknown.

Krampus is a creature that exists in Alpine folklore, only appearing during the month of December. His appearance varies depending on the storyteller, but he is typically portrayed as a hairy, demon-like creature with cloven hooves and a long tongue. At night, if you listen closely, you can hear the sounds of his chains smashing together.

Standing askew to Saint Nicolas (and sometimes accompanying the bearded one), Krampus appears to collect bad girls and boys during the Christmas season. He carries around a bundle of birch sticks that he uses to hit children with. Krampus has a sack or basket on his back which he fills with the writhing bodies of the children. Then he disappears, either sending the children to Hell, killing them...or eating them.

Many believe Krampus was created by Christians, but the creature's origins stem from pre-Christian times. Krampus originally came about from celebrations where people dressed up in costumes, most commonly "Old Man Winter" and "the Goat Man". The Goat Man, and other celebrations involving the Satyr, were outlawed by Christians during the Inquisition era. But over time Krampus was incorporated into Christmas as a Devil-like entity used to scare children into behaving.

It is common for people to think that Santa handles both good and bad children, giving the good children presents and giving the bad children coal. But that may not be the case...So, remind children: If they've been bad, they won't be seeing any coal for Christmas. Instead, they'll be stuffed into a basket by a demon and eaten alive.

You and a few others are working in an area of the sewers. Your surroundings are only illuminated by a few overhead lights and the lights on your hard hats. There is an air of uneasiness about the group and no one can quite explain the origin of the feeling. Usually the darkness of the sewers is easier to confront, but the blackness beyond the dim light seems almost tangible.

Suddenly, someone looks up and says "Shh, you hear that?" After a few more shushes, you and the workers cease your work and become quiet. Beyond the sound of creaking pipes and water droplets you can just make out...voices? No, that couldn't be, you think. There couldn't be others near here. And yet the dull sound of voices appears to state otherwise.

Your boss nods toward you. "Go see who's makin' that din, eh?"

Sighing, you drop your equipment and head off toward the noise. After a while, it's only you and the light on your hard hat. Though you still can't quite make out the sound, the closer you get to it the louder it becomes. You make your way around a bend in the tunnel. You spot a glimmer of something beyond the light, then suddenly everything goes black. The light on your hard hat must have gone out. You take off the hat and tap it a few times. Finally, the light comes back on and...

Your legs give you little time to study the creature because they've already begun to move. You rush in the direction you'd come from, hearing a second sound of footsteps accompanying your own. Was the thing chasing you!? You hear faint laughter coming from the thing's direction. You make it back to your work area and turn around. The creature was nowhere to be found; beyond the light was only that unfamiliar, tangible darkness. You stand there, huffing and puffing. Your co-workers stare at you, perplexed.

"You look like you've seen your dead grandmum!" One of your co-workers exclaims.

"I saw..." You gasp, turning to them. "I saw...something..."

"The hell's wrong with you, son? The voices are still--" He stops, his own voice trailing off. You watch your co-workers eyes move from your face to a spot just over your shoulder. At once, they drop their tools and stare with transfixed eyes, backing away slowly.

Of course. Why would the thing stop following you?

In 2008, sewage workers in East Essex, England reported sightings of a humanoid, "zombie" creature. They said it was stalking them, sometimes even laughing. It would follow workers around.

One of the workers, Mark Wey, hired paranormal investigators to scope out the place and see whether this phenomenon was a haunting or not.

"The conclusion is," Mark said, "we can't prove it is haunted because of strong electromagnetic fields, which can cause the illusion of being haunted, the feeling of being touched or watched. But there is definitely paranormal activity.

"People feel uneasy when they enter the building and the hairs on the back of your neck go up.

"A lot of people don't like going in there. You can hear voices in the tunnels..."

Was this "zombie" merely a prank being played on the workers? Was the creature merely a dirty and/or deformed vagrant? Or was there truly an undead creature stalking the underground passageways of East Essex?

At the base of Fujiyama in Japan sits a forest called Aokigahara, or Jukai (the Sea of Trees). It is an eerily quiet place, void of the loud clamor and noise of an average forest. The place is also covered in shadow due to the vast, 35 square-kilometer canopy created by the tall, thin trees.

Because the forest sits below a volcano, it is covered in volcanic rock. There are also a large network of underground catacombs created by the passing of lava. One can easily misstep and fall into one of these catacombs, sometimes going straight through the ground if the soil is weak enough. 

In addition to these anomalies, popular myth states that compasses always falter due to the magnetic rocks scattered throughout the forest. However, this was proven false by others who tested the theory. Were the people lying when they said the compasses wouldn't work, or was there something else at play?

Well...The forest became known as the Suicide Forest. It is the 2nd most popular place to commit suicide, next to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Suicides have become so common there that search parties are often sent out annually. Not to look for the living, but to look for the dead. There are dozens upon dozens of signs spread out across the forest saying things like "Life is precious!" and "Think of how your family will feel!" It's also common to find the book "The Complete Manual of Suicide" by Wataru Tsurumui, where the author views the forest as the "perfect place to die". With the amount of abandoned nooses hanging about the place, it does seem pretty convenient.

People believe that the main reason for these suicides is due to a popular book by Seicho Matsumoto, "Nami no To" (Tower of Wave). At the end of the book, two lovers set off into the forest and end their lives there. Despite the belief that this book was the cause, suicides have been reported long before the book's publication. There were reports of people abandoning family members in the forest if they were a burden--corpses of the elderly, for instance, were always found. These and the suicides were, however, only a small part of the darkness of the forest. The forest has been a symbol for death for a very long time.

Massive amounts of people taking their life in the pit of misery is bound to stir up some supernatural phenomenon. The forest has been known to house the damned spirits of those passed. In addition, people believe the forest is inhabited by other unearthly creatures of Japanese folklore, like the horrifying Oni (Demons/ogres) or goblins. These beliefs are nothing new--they're ancient, older than you or I.

Often, when the search parties bring back a corpse (or corpses) from the forest, they do jan ken pon (rock paper scissors) to see who will stay in the room and keep watch over the body. It is believed that if the body were left alone, the soul of the person would become restless and the body would move on its own.

To this day, the suicides continue. With the Japanese economy in decline and the constant pressure to make something of yourself, it may not die down any time soon.

It's late in the evening and you've stepped out into the night air in order to put out the trash. As you near the garbage can, you hear rustling. You pause, listening. The rustling stops and you see a low shape lope out from behind the can. It's too dark to make out its features, but you're positive it's a dog. However, something about it is very, very wrong. You can't quite put your finger on it.

You step closer to the dog, readying the bag to put into the can. You're wary of the dog because you're not sure if it could have rabies or not. The dog stands there staring up at you, its canine silhouette unmoving. Then it grunts and turns, as if your general presence and existence there was ruining its night. As it turns, you catch its features in the subtle light coming from your house.

You drop the trash bag and back away slowly. The human-faced dog grumbles "Leave me alone" and lopes off into the night, searching for another trash can to raid.

Stories like this can be found in Japan, going far back into the Edo period (1603-1868). Human-Faced Dogs, or Jinmenken, were always seen at night. In passing, they would always mumble in a disgruntled manner, sometimes telling the person to leave them alone. At first they were considered to be bad omens and the cause of misfortune, but that belief seems to have faded over the years.  

It is believed that Jinmenken were once human, as some people say they've seen the dogs with the faces of family members, friends, or co-workers who had recently gone missing. If one were to bite you, they say that you will also transform into a Jinmenken.

Others believe that what people perceive as human-faced dogs are actually the Japanese macaque, a primate native to Japan. The macaque is said to often walk into town and roam the streets at night raiding trash cans. They also make human-like grunts. Under proper lighting, one could easily mistake them for a human-faced dog if they weren't used to seeing the primates roaming about at night.

However, dogs and primates have a very different way of moving, and it should be easy to distinguish between the lope of a dog and the stroll of a primate. In the end...Who really knows?

This legend's inspirations can be traced back to the Middle Ages of Europe.

The most recent, well-known incarnation of the legend began in Loudon Park Cemetery, in Baltimore, Maryland. There, guarding a grave, sat a statue. It was a woman garbed in long, flowing robes, her facial features shrouded in shadow behind a hood. The statue gave off an aura of malevolence, giving one the impression that she could reach out at any moment and grab a hold of random passersby.

Crossing her path at midnight was a misfortune. Behind her hood it was said that red eyes pierced the darkness. If someone were to meet her gaze of misery, the person would be stricken blind in that very moment. If the victim was pregnant, they would have a miscarriage.

There were other rumours that, in the darkest of night, lost souls could be seen surrounding the statue. Dark, shadowy silhouettes of the dead would stand about her, almost in a disturbing, silent praise.

The main tale, however, was that anyone who sat upon Black Aggie's lap would be crushed. Sitting on her lap became a type of initiation for various sororities and fraternities. Because of the unwanted attention, the statue was moved to the Dolley Madison House courtyard in Washington.

It was believed that the statue was possessed by the soul of a woman who died in misery. This woman was believed to be buried in the grave below the statue, though it was later revealed that the grave actually housed Felix Agnus, a Civil War general. However, this particular statue was merely a copy. The original could be found in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington. This statue sat over the grave of Marian Adams, a woman who was so distraught after the death of her father that she took her own life. Her husband had the statue built in his sadness, calling it "Grief". He was later laid to rest beside his wife, the statue watching over their sorrowful souls for eternity.

Have the souls of the Adams manifested in the statue that sat in Loudon Park Cemetery? We may never know.

Somewhere on the internet exists a certain pop-up. You could be on any site, at any computer, and the pop-up will find you. When it appears--with a red background and black text--you will hear the voice of a child saying  ”あなたは—好きですか？” ("Do you like--?".

If you close the window, it will merely appear again, asking you the same thing. Eventually the text on the screen and the child's voice, gradually becoming more twisted and altered, change from ”あなたは赤い好きですか？” ("Do you like red?") to, finally... 

”あなたは赤い部屋が好きですか？” ("Do you like the red room?")

At this moment, you will feel a presence behind you, and......

It is said that anyone who encounters this pop-up will be found dead the next day, the walls of their room coloured red with their own blood.

The Red Room is an urban legend originating from a viral flash animation. It gained more notoriety when the animation was found to be a favourite of the girl who committed the Sasebo Slashing in 2004.