Previously: “The Children’s Show.”
This week, a good ol’ fashioned creature feature: “The Willow Creature,” a creepypasta taking the form of a young teenager’s journal entries documenting the oddities they’re experiencing in their grandparents’ house following the death of their grandfather. It plays on a lot of childhood fears — namely, the idea of the monster in the closet — and, at the time of its publication in 2014, featured some supplemental found footage on YouTube that, alas, is no longer available to view. Such is the nature of the internet: Somehow both permanent and ephemeral, all at the same time.
I’ll be honest: The prose itself of “The Willow Creature” isn’t terrific. It’s got a lot of run-on sentences and some grammatical errors. It’s also not entirely clear who the diary is meant for or where/how it’s being written. (Is it a blog? A physical notebook? Something else? How are we, the readers, accessing it? No idea!) The narrator of the story is meant to be a 14-year-old, so some of it could be chalked up to the youth of the protagonist — but given that the story’s sequel features an adult protagonist who writes in the same way, that’s probably not actually the case here.
[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]
Speaking of: Yes, there’s a sequel! Creepypasta user CrossFleur, who also penned the original, posted the follow-up, “The Willow’s Winter,” just two months later — and although it, too, takes the form of journal entries, it’s much more ambitious in its presentation than the initial tale: We get to see the actual pages… and there’s stuff hidden in them, if you look carefully. The downside of this presentation is that the story isn’t accessible to all as a result; it’s comprised entirely of image files, and I don’t believe there’s alt text for them. So, heads up about that in the event that you use a screen reader.
Anyhoo, despite its flaws, I found “The Willow Creature” to be an enjoyable read — quick and eerie, something to send a little shiver down your spine.
The moral of the story: If you feel like you’re being watched while you sleep… maybe don’t ignore that feeling.
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Entry 1 – Thursday, 1st of October, 2009
So… I don’t really know what I’m doing… Well, let me explain.
I’ve been experiencing odd things at night, I’ve been telling my mother about it but she just listens to my “ramblings” while she watches TV. She told me I had a very creative imagination and that I should write a horror book and get all these ideas out.
I half took this advice, I decided to start writing a journal about what happens at night. Since this is my first entry, to whoever may read this, I’ll get you up to date.
A week and a bit ago my grandfather died, he was eighty-two so it’s no huge shock, granny told me he was having a hard time breathing and grandpa thought that it was probably the room they were sleeping in, he then left the room and granny went back to sleep, when she woke back up she found him dead in the guest bedroom.
No one was really suspicious of his death, he died of natural causes is what we all thought. I and my parents went to the funeral, and as much as I didn’t want to, dad wanted us to stay with granny and keep her company.
Now the thing is, I’m sleeping in the queen-sized bed in the guest bedroom, and I keep waking up at midnight.
And find the sequel, “The Willow’s Winter,” here.
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Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Bluesky @GhostMachine13.bsky.social, Twitter @GhostMachine13, and Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!
[Photo via steve_a_johnson/Pixabay]
