What do you think? Heh-heh. Not satisfied, are you? Didn’t think so. You’re right, I never brought up .
But there’s more. I’m sure you’re curious about the cursed video. Yes. I immediately looked it up.
A said he just picked something at random for his study, so I suspect he didn’t know that the video he chose is actually somewhat famous. Well, maybe famous is the wrong word. But it’s discussed a lot on internet forums and the like.
One thread I found linked the video and insisted that watching it would actually curse you. A few people claimed it had made them feel sick or caused problems in their lives related to the supernatural.
Then, as you might expect, various internet sleuths started identifying the clips. One part came from some American film. Another was a supposedly haunted GIF that made the rounds a few years back. It’s amazing how good people are at that kind of thing.
But there was one part no one could identify. It didn’t seem to have come from any existing footage. Specifically, it was one scene with two parts. Together, it was about five seconds long and shot in black and white. Everyone thought it was some amateur recording.
I watched it, too. The scene in question didn’t have the impact of the other parts, but it stood out for being particularly incomprehensible.
It starts with a building with the number five on it. You know how they number apartment buildings? It was like that. The shot of the building was taken from the ground.
Then the video cut to a close-up of a woman’s face. She looked like she was smiling, or crying, or maybe angry. Her mouth was open in a wide grin that showed all her teeth. Her face got closer to the camera, then backed away. The sudden shot of her face was startling, and she only appeared for a few seconds, so it was difficult to tell, but I think she was jumping up toward the camera. It was like someone was standing above her, recording her as she looked up and jumped in their direction. Both her hands were extended above her head, as though she was reaching for the camera.
Exactly. The woman in A’s story did the same thing. But A didn’t see her, so we can’t be sure it was the same person.
Understandably, the same internet sleuths tried to identify that part of the cursed video as well. The building in the first shot was determined to be Building Five of the ghost apartments in . Based on the exterior and the mountain ridge visible in the background, it’s almost certain.
But no one could identify the woman. The video only showed her face and hands, after all. The only other thing they were able to determine was that the ground beneath her was covered in gravel. The people in the thread picked the whole thing apart, but no one ever figured out who she was or where the video had been recorded.
The ghost apartments have a lot of creepy stories attached to them, so the people in the thread concluded it was this clip that caused the curse.
And that’s where the story ends.
Why didn’t we publish it, you ask? Oh, well. That’s because the chief editor shelved it. He said the ending wasn’t strong enough. In other words, we didn’t get close enough to the truth. That’s just how he was.
I actually agree with him. The story feels incomplete. It’s messy. We’d need more evidence if we wanted to bill it as an investigation into the truth of the matter, and there isn’t enough there for readers to have fun making up their own theories, either. It’s too bad, really.
The story was scrapped, so you can write about it if you’d like. I’m sure you could do something with it. Then it can finally be put to bed. No, really. Go for it. You’ve done so much for us. I enjoyed talking with you. It really brings me back.
I’ll ask O for any unpublished info about , too. I haven’t talked with him in a while, so it’ll be a good opportunity to reach out.