Urban Legends.

[LordOfThe5Rings]

I know I've been hogging the boards the last few days, but I don't care :P Just been curious on other peoples opinions on things.

I didn't know where to put this, so I apologise if it's in the wrong category.

I was wondering what everyones favourite Urban Legend/Cautionary Tale was. I have been fascinated in them for pretty much forever, due to so many meanings and of course expressing the nations fears.

So what are your favourites? Feel free to share the UL with us! :)

[Ohwhatfuckeryisthis]

To lighten the mood kind of...a FOAF's wife was an A and E nurse. She came on shift to find everyone with the giggles.
A bloke had come in the night before, on his stomach on a stretcher(long time ago) paramedics stifling laughs.
He had been on the loo having a fag. Unbeknownst to him his wife had been painting, and poured the turps down the loo. So of course he throws the butt down-boom! Seriously burnt arse.
Ambulance comes, when they ask what's happened, he tells them and they laugh so hard they drop the stretcher and break his arm.

[crikeybill]

Absey that story already featured at the very start of this thread lol. Its rubbish. A genuine urban myth !!

[Absy]

For the breast larvae thing about, my parents lived in Zimbabwe at one stage and you DM has said that you had to iron all clothing to kill larvae that flies laid in clothes.

I have a true story that an intern told us (happened to her friend). A friend of hers went on holiday to Greece with a whole group. One evening they were going out for drinks, and she was ready before everyone else so went to wait for them in a bar. While she was waiting, a good looking well dressed man came over and started chatting to her. They got on, and he asked her if she wanted to go back to his place. She declined (as she was joining her friends), so he gave her his business card, shook her hand and left. She carried on with the holiday, didn't contact him and went home. When she got back to the UK, she developed a weird rash on her arm. Went to the doctor, he just gave her a cream - nothing happened, it didn't clear up. Went to the doctor again who referred her to a tropical diseases specialist. When that doctor investigated it, it turns out that she had maggots under her skin, and the doctor asked her what she'd been up to, anything unusual as these maggots are only found when coming into contact with dead bodies, and the only thing she could think of was this guy in the bar. Doctor took the business card (which had traces of something on it), got in contact with the police in Greece who raided this guy's house and found decomposing bodies in the back garden - he was into necrophilia and she was supposed to be his next victim.

[mediawhore]

Loved this thread.

Shameless bump for more!

[somedizzywhore1804]

Marking place

[junobaby74]

R8flj

[ScandinavianPrincess]

What was Tulpa?

[filimou]

I cant believe no-one has mentioned tulpa yet.
That story scaredme shitless for ages!

[GruffBillyGoat]

That breast larvae looks like a scene from God of War Ascension, only her tits sprout insects which possess statues and attack you. Makes it far less scary having seen it already in an obviously fake setting.

[phantomnamechanger]

why oh why did I look!

[LittleMissGerardLouiseButler]

Here is a link I found, don't look at it though if you have that fear of things with holes, I feel sick after looking at the picture!

urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_breast_larvae.htm

[phantomnamechanger]

well, thanks all for a few hours spent scaring myself witless - and now I must go to bed if I dare

sweet dreams

[ThePearShapedToad]

Oh my heavens. I knew I shouldn't have started reading this.
I'm not allowed to watch or read anything other than Disney-esque stuff due to a severe over imagination and then getting scared for days afterwards. And now I'm terrified!!!!!!!

[Pipbin]

I haven't finished reading yet, but I wanted to say hello to YouBloodyWolf. I must know you from the Fortean Times board as I've been posting there since 2001.

[EatenByZombies]

Ohhh I'm an Urban Legend freak, I love them all and love hearing new ones so this thread is now my home

My fave comes from Japanese legends, called Kuchisake-onna^^ or Slit-Mouthed Woman.

According to the legend, children walking alone at night may encounter a woman wearing a surgical mask, which is not an unusual sight in Japan as people wear them to protect others from their colds or sickness. The woman will stop the child and ask, "Am I beautiful?" If the child answers no, the child is killed with a pair of scissors which the woman carries. If the child answers yes, the woman pulls away the mask, revealing that her mouth is slit from ear to ear, and asks "How about now?". If the child answers no, he/she will be cut in half. If the child answers yes, then she will slit his/her mouth like hers. It is impossible to run away from her, as she will simply reappear in front of the victim.

When the legend reappeared in the 1970s rumors of ways to escape also emerged. Some sources say she can also be confused by answering her question with, rather than yes or no, "You are average." Unsure of what to do, she will give a person enough time to escape while she is lost in thought. Another escape route is to tell her one has a previous engagement; she will pardon her manners and excuse herself. In some variations of the tale, she can be distracted by throwing fruit or candies at her which she will then pick up, thus giving the victim a chance to run. She will also be at an advantage to run toward you if she has the chance. Another way is for the child to ask her if the child is pretty; she will get confused and leave.

[SarahAndFuck]

Mine is the couple driving through a forest when they notice a human figure running alongside their car.

They speed up and so does the figure, keeping pace with and then running far faster than the car, which is speeding at over 70 mph by that point.

As the couple watch it turns to snarl at them and they realise it isn't human at all, before it begins to run faster than they can keep up with and disappears.

I like to tell DH this story whenever we drive along country roads, especially if it's dark. It freaks him out every time

[ZipItShrimpy]

Spent most of a sleepless night reading these stories and then spent my morning clicking on all the links I was too terrified to look at in the middle if the night!

Fabulous!

[SomeDizzyWhore1804]

Read all of this in one sitting last night and scared the b'jesus out of myself (had to put all the lights on upstairs to go and have a wee! )

However, it has whet my appetite and in googling urban legends I found this: The Story of Rudolph Fentz. Intriguing!

[Orianne]

Well I've spent most of the morning reading this and it may be bright sunshine outside but I am still scared.

[SomeDizzyWhore1804]

So excited to read this tonight so am marking my place! Wooooo.

[carovioletfizz]

I have just scared myself stupid reading this, my husband got home from work half an hour ago and said I had left the keys in the front door - they've been there all evening since I got in at 5pm....anyone could have let themselves in. Not going to sleep tonight!

[Naysa]

Shameless bump so I won't be the only one awake shitting myself tonight

[mynameis]

I have scared my self shitless re-reading some of this thread

[perceptionreality]

I've heard quite a few of these stories, especially the hanging dog one at the beginning of the thread.

Also heard one about wishing on a monkey's paw that turned out to be cursed.

Another one about a girl who had only a ribbon which prevented her head from falling off

Stick men, if they exist must be aliens mustn't they?? Anyone know if the first picture on the thread is 'real' with children and the slender man in the background?

I've read some really scary stories on a paranormal website - the one that stuck in my mind was this one:

'Ghoul on the Swing
by Amber

It was summertime in 1992 and I was about 15 or 16. Having received my learner's permit for driving, my mother had taken me out to County Line Road to practice. This is a long, straight country road that divides two counties in Northwest Indiana. We had driven this road many times before, as it was a family tradition for a Sunday drive.

On this day, I was at the driver's seat. I was driving along and we were immersed in conversation when I felt a chill. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood straight up and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. My mother had stopped talking and I could tell that she was feeling this as well. I continued to drive, and slowly (as if forced to), I turned my head to the right, my mother did as well. As we looked out the window, and a small, yellow house came into view. I felt fear like I've never known before.

As we continued, I noticed a tree next to the house with a swing. And sitting on that swing was a man. I call him a man because that is the only way I can describe it. He wore all black, including a black derby hat. I remember that I started shaking when I saw his face. He was looking at us and following the movement of the car. His face was red and disfigured. He was smiling at us as he swung. I swear we locked eyes. My mother and I never took our eyes off of him. It felt like it took a century to drive by this house. Then I started crying. My mother started crying. We both looked at each other and said, "What was that?" It felt like Holy Fear.

Having reached the end of the road, we were forced to turn around and go past this house again. Although this time we knew it was there, we were still not prepared to be totally paralyzed with fear and forcibly drawn to it again. But we were and the tears began to flow again. This time I felt my mom snap out of it and heard her utter a silent prayer. We drove away from that place shaken. We still discuss that day, and even talking about it or thinking about it continues to give us physical reactions.

As an adult, I drive by that area quite often now, but I cannot seem to locate where that house was.'

[CleoSmackYa]

I need more stories!