Creepypasta

"So ur with ur honey and yur making out wen the phone rigns. U anser it n the vioce is “wut r u doing wit my daughter?” U tell ur girl n she say “my dad is ded”. THEN WHO WAS PHONE?"

We sincerely hope you weren't planning on sleeping anytime soon. Creepypasta is a collection of creepy, frightening, and/or utterly terrifying stories that originated from and still are floating around the internet. The name itself comes from "Copypasta", referring to the tendency of creepypasta to be copied and pasted all across the Internet. They can range anywhere from ghost stories or mind-bending tales of terror, to stories about slim businessmen. A common trait among them are a lack of disclaimer from their authors stating the work is fiction which may cause the lines of reality and fantasy to blend. Just don't look behind you, 'kay? Often the subjects of ARGs, because audience participation can add whole new levels of Nightmare Fuel. Sometimes, these may actually have a decent ending.

Archives where they can be found are here, here, here, here, and here. There's a Wiki for creepy pastas, found here: Creepypasta Wiki. There's a forum for the creepypasta community, found here: Terror Tortellini. Can be found in illustrated form here.

Not to be confused with pasta that may be creepy.

See also the SCP Foundation and Unfiction forums.

Notable Creepypastas are:

 * The Holders Series
 * The Slender Man Mythos: One of the most engaging out there.
 * Zalgo
 * Ben Drowned: Another very engaging pasta.
 * Minecraft's own Herobrine.
 * Happy Appy
 * Dead Bart
 * Squidward's Suicide
 * The Grifter
 * Lost Silver
 * Notable as someone made an actual game based off of this creepypasta. It's not a hacked ROM but a game created in Game Maker. It faithfully recreates the game experiences of the original, and then expands upon the content through help of the author. It's strongly suggested that one play the game first and then read the original, since the original creepypasta is effectively one big spoiler for the game. Available here: Here
 * Another popular one is Ghost Black.
 * The aptly-named NES Godzilla Creepypasta
 * Stranger on a Train
 * Candle Cove
 * It has a sequel now.
 * The Rake. Began as a standalone pasta. Popularized by Everyman HYBRID.
 * The Untitled Fantendo Story sorta fits this, especially in the "real life" chapters. Has a much happier ending, since the author did not write it intending for it to be creepypasta-like.
 * Suicide Mouse
 * Russian Sleep Experiment.
 * Jeff the Killer
 * The Books of Sand
 * Psychosis

Creepypastas contain examples of:

 * Abandoned Area: Abandoned hospitals, abandoned playgrounds, abandoned warehouses, and haunted houses are the common ones amongst the abandoned areas selection.
 * Alien Geometries: Common, considering that a lot of 'pastas are meant to be in the mind screwey nature.
 * All Hallow's Eve: These can and do take place at any time of the year, but God help any unfortunate soul who is the main character of one that does take place as Halloween, considering how potent some of the horrors in these are at regular times of the year.
 * All in the Eyes: Oftens crosses over with red or black eyes take warning.
 * Always Night: A few, but mostly subverted as a lot of the horrors of these stories usually don't even bother waiting for night to come out.
 * And I Must Scream: How more than a few of these end.
 * Anonymous Author
 * Apocalyptic Log: Oh, yes.
 * Ascended Meme: Herobrine has been referenced several times in the Minecraft updates, mainly in reference to him being removed.
 * Audience Participation: Some of the best ones add new levels of scary by hinging the ultimate fate of the main character by how much help the audience at home are. You fail, The Hero Dies.
 * For that matter, the viewers might be next.
 * Being Watched: It wouldn't be one of these if this didn't happen every other 'pasta.
 * The Blank: That goes without saying...
 * Body Horror: In all their utterly terrifying glory.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: See Audience Participation.
 * Brown Note: Several involve something, be it a video, picture, etc, that causes people to go insane, or worse.
 * Cliché Storm: An interesting example - the Creepypasta Wiki even has a list of "Creepy Cliches".
 * Creepy Basement: And make sure to keep it locked up tight.
 * Creepy Child: Frequent.
 * Creepy Doll: "Lucy wants to play with you, forever and ever..."
 * Heck, so many Creepy Doll pictures were added onto the wiki that they said, "NO MORE DOLLS".
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: Well, these have to scare you somehow.
 * Crusty Caretaker: If you suspect you are, in fact, the star of a creepypasta. Listen to these guys when they tell you not to go into the Abandoned Warehouse.
 * Curiosity Killed the Cast: See Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: "Love" - a girl finds a note addressed to her on her computer, describing all the paranormal activity and shadows she's seen her entire life.
 * Dark World: Where a lot of the central characters end up before the end of the tale.
 * Deadly Hug: The turn-into-a-monster variant (often accompanied by a Bedmate Reveal) is popular.
 * Deadly Prank: The backstory for a few of these.
 * Death by Mocking: If the hero character is especially dumb.
 * Defanged Horrors: Averted. Don't expect the hero(es) to get off that easy.
 * Demonic Possession: A person, animal, or inanimate object may end up being controlled by an evil spirit....and causing great havoc.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In Russian Sleep Experiment, a group of test subjects deprived of sleep slowly go insane, performing gruesome self-mutilation and cannibalism.
 * Don't Go in The Woods: Averted. Staying out of the woods won't save you.
 * Driven to Madness: But of course.
 * Driven to Suicide: Though that doesn't always work...
 * Eldritch Abomination: Z̵͍̖̹̹̈ͣ̒̅̅LA̸͙̜̝̟̜̲͛ͅL̢̧͈͉̯͙͆ͧ͘G̢̬̣͌̿ͮ̍̿ͦ͗̚͠O̫̾́ͩͫͤ͛̉̔́ͣͧ͐́̚҉̫̘͎̪̟͠ͅEC̡̨̺̻͕͔̼͉̺̑ͥͅO͎͇̞̹̮̭̱ͭ́͑̀͋ͪM̴̖̩͖͓̪̐̍ͯͬ͐E̴̪̯͙̜͚̝̋ͮ͊ͩ̏KUT̳̮̂͊EͯH̶̛͉̞͉͕̩̻̽̃̀
 * Evil Everything: Evil mirrors, evil bums, evil houses, evil video games, evil cars, evil dolls, evil children, everything is out to get you in these stories.
 * Expy: Jeff the Killer is basically The Joker with an origin story and a heaping helping of Uncanny Valley. He's even got two joker origins incorporated into his, with the chemical alteration of his face and a Glasgow Grin carved into it.
 * Eye Scream: Expect a few eyes to be poked out.
 * Only Person: The main characters are often the only human characters of any significence in these.
 * Food Chain of Evil: The Horrors hunger...
 * Fourth Wall Observer: You shouldn't have done that. No, really. You shouldn't have.
 * The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: No, no it will not.
 * Freak Lab Accident: How more than a few of these came into existence.
 * Ghostly Chill: Whether or not they're actually ghosts sometimes doesn't matter. No matter the Horror, the main character will probably experience this at some point.
 * Haunted Heroine: Somewhat subverted, as Creepypastas don't tend to favor either sex. Just say Haunted Person.
 * Haunted Technology: You've met a terrible fate, haven't you?
 * Hell Hotel: Yes.
 * Hive Mind: Zͦ̏̍͊͏̺̮A̩̙̫̳̥̹͐̾͌ͭ̀L͊͑҉̪̬͍͉̬̟G̴O͍͖̪̼͋̈ͮ͒̋
 * Humanoid Abomination: The most common one of all.
 * Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: More like hunting a member of a species who just thought they were the most dangerous game.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Nice knowing you...
 * Indian Burial Ground: A few, but really, just about any kind of burial ground can be enough to set off the events of these.
 * Incurable Cough of Death: Possibly either how the horror started out, or what the protagonist will experience by the end.
 * Ironic Nursery Tune: Just pray they aren't reading Ring Around The Rosies.
 * It Can Think: And usually more intelligent than whoever it's tormenting.
 * It Won't Turn Off: Part of the time, but turning it on to begin with was probably enough to render whether it was on or off in the first place moot.
 * Life or Limb Decision: Literally.
 * The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Be Genre Savvy not to shop there.
 * Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Some creepypasta are totally ambiguous as to whether it's supernatural or not. Perfect examples of this are the Pokémon creepypasta Ghost Black and Lost Silver, which are simply the author describing what appear to be nothing more than very morbid Pokémon rom hacks that were written to cartridges. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise and nothing strange happens to the author of either other than them being incredibly freaked out about it. Supernatural possibilities come from wondering who in the world would do this and why. (On top of the fact that hacking the games to such an extent has only recently become possible)
 * "Helen": The narrator finds his grandfather acting bizarrely in his new apartment, claiming someone named "Helen" is taking over rooms and making threats. Turns out some computer virus has been downloading obscene material and relaying threatening messages through a Bonzi Buddy called "Helen," and with the computer gone the grandfather starts getting better. The narrator still thinks it's weird that there's no documentation of the virus online.
 * Minimalism: Most, if not all, creepypastas are a tale of a one or two (three, tops) human characters and a single monster in usually one location.
 * Many Slender-blogs and Vlogs avert this. Most notably, Everyman HYBRID has Loads and Loads of Characters. On top of that, the most popular blogs tend to acknowledge each other's existence and even have characters interact with each other, effectively turning them into a Massively Multiplayer Crossover and creating the closest thing to a canon the mythos has.
 * Missing Episode: Lots of creepypastas concern missing episodes.
 * The Most Dangerous Video Game: Just ask Ben.
 * No Fourth Wall: Sometimes the fourth wall is not enough. Other times, it isn't even there at all...
 * Not-So-Imaginary Friend: "Love", mentioned above, is about one of these. Unlike most though, he's not evil at all, though he gets scary when he's pissed.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: Ah, the very backbone a lot of these are built on.
 * Not Using the Z Word: Averted. If the Horror of the story is a old chestnut monster, the protagonists are usually quick to identify them by name.
 * Offscreen Teleportation: The Horror present is often capable of this.
 * Once Is Not Enough: Protagonists are usually Genre Savvy enough to realize this, but that doesn't normally save them.
 * Organ Theft: Keep a close eyes on your liver, mate.
 * Orifice Invasion: Yes, given that most of the Horrors are personal space violators.
 * Personal Horror: All the time.
 * Psychological Horror: The very fabric of most of these.
 * ROM Hack: Some of these Creepypastas are this.
 * Room 101: In any that take place in hotels.
 * Room Full of Crazy
 * Rule of Scary: Some of these monsters and horrors make no damn sense in design or motive. More often than not, that's exactly what's so scary about them.
 * Safe Zone Hope Spot: Averted. Don't count on there being one, bucko.
 * Schmuck Bait: You just had to click that link.
 * Shock Site: Some of the more disturbing images associated with creepypasta, like SMILE.jpg or Jeff The Killer, are frequently used for this purpose.
 * Sinister Scraping Sound: I hope you're not honestly dumb enough to go investigating it.
 * Spooky Painting: Check.
 * Spooky Photographs: Double check.
 * Stand in Portrait: The above two sometimes turn out to be this.
 * Sturgeon's Law: There's a lot of Creepypasta. Most famously, WHO WAS PHONE?
 * Surreal Horror: This isn't just the backbone or essence of Creepypasta. This is the very string they're woven out of!
 * These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: And you will either only know them for for a very short time, or for a very long time but forcefully and bodily silenced.
 * Things That Go Bump in the Night: And in the morning, and noon, and afternoon...
 * Town with a Dark Secret: every damn last one of them!
 * Too Stupid to Live: How else do you think so many of the protagonists get hunted/haunted?
 * Twist Ending: Expect this. A lot. The wiki has a category called, "Shock ending".
 * Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Authors of creepypastas take from real life events with often chilling skill.
 * Truth in Television: Some of these are actually real. Notably Chernobyl.
 * Viral Transformation: More than a few protagonists ended up in the same boat as their tormentor.
 * Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: You'd be amazed at how many are reliant on the main character ignoring all warning labels and sign posts for the fun to begin.

"Then, a skeleton popped out."