{{AN|This isn't exactly a traditional creepypasta. It's just a true story I thought some people might find interesting.}}
I know it's become a cliche for people to start off creepypastas with the line "This is true, I don't care if you believe me." in a vain attempt to immerse you into their story. However, I pride myself on my honesty, and I can honestly say this really happened to me. I think all you skeptics out there will find that this story isn't too far fetched to believe anyways.
One night back in 2009 or so, I was browsing YouTube. I believe I had just gotten done watching a viral video of some kind when I started looking through the comments section. My eyes fell upon a chain letter. It read:
"Hi. My name is Anna. I was raped and brutally murdered back in 1996. If you don't copy/paste this to 10 other videos in the next hour, I'll murder you in your sleep." Or at least it said something along those lines.
Even though I was a 14 year old child, I was logical enough to not entertain this buffoonery. I mean, come on. It's one thing if you expect me to believe in ghosts, but expecting me to fear a ghost that's going to warn me, along with thousands of other people, about it hunting me down via a short youtube comment? Get real.
Later that night, I naturally grew tired and headed upstairs to my bedroom to sleep. I'll admit, the more I thought about it, the scarier the chain letter seemed. Maybe it was just the silence, or the complete darkness, but I had trouble falling asleep that night.
None the less, in the morning I woke up. It was just like any other day, but with one exception. I was smiling. I was smiling because I was proud of myself. Why? For not being as gullible as the other kids my age, of course. They had been wasting their time spreading around those chain letters, and I felt mighty knowing I was one of the rare few who wasn't living my life in fear.
Over the course of the next few weeks I saw plenty of chain letters, sometimes the same ones. However, there was only one that stuck with me, and still sticks with me to this day.
Surely you've heard the urban legend about the clown statue right? If you haven't, you should look it up. But if that's too much of an inconvenience, here's the basic version. A babysitter tucks the children she's sitting into bed and is weirded out by a clown statue she sees in the corner of the kids' room. She phones the parents asking if she can cover it up, and they reveal they own no such statue. They tell her to call the police and she takes the kids and gets out. Or, in the less soft versions of the story, the cops arrive to discover the interior of the household covered in their blood & organs. It was basically that story only put into a youtube comment. It had a typical chain letter style ending that read "send this to 10 other videos within the hour or the clown will come and kill you with a chainsaw at 3 AM."
I did the same as before and refused to fall victim to my gullibility and fear. Except on this night, my insomnia kicked in and I couldn't sleep. I went back down to the living room and stayed up all night watching youtube videos and playing computer games.
I was just getting bored and finally a bit groggy, possibly even ready to finally hit the hay when I looked over and saw the clock. It read "2:45 AM."
Though my inner skeptic was telling me it was just going to be like every other night, I was actually kind of scared. I don't know why. It was probably just my tired mind causing me to become a bit less logical and more paranoid. I tried to go back to watching youtube videos but I found myself glancing at the clock every other minute. It eventually became 2:50, 2:55, and then finally, 3:00 AM.
Then... nothing happened. I was sitting there waiting, scared and paranoid, in my living room for three whole minutes before I realized how ridiculous I was being. A wave of relief washed over me, but I was a bit disappointed in myself for letting that senseless internet garbage get to me so badly. That's when I heard a loud creaking sound, and turned my head to see the door to my basement had been opened halfway.
I was scared senseless, and my eyes didn't move from that door. I sat there for at least fifteen minutes, heart beating loudly in my chest as I looked onward, expecting to see it open further to reveal a chainsaw wielding clown covered in dried blood. After the fifteen minutes, my heart slowed just enough for a small bit of rationality to sink in. What if it was just the wind from the nearby window? After bracing myself and gathering up all my courage, I quietly but quickly made my way to the door and pressed it firmly shut, locking it. I backed away from it cautiously and returned to my seat in the living room. I began to feel a lot safer, though I didn't feel entirely safe near the basement for a few months or so afterward.
Anyway, that's my real life experience. Maybe it doesn't sound like the creepiest thing to you. That's fine. To me, it was a genuinely horrifying experience.
I don't think the thing that kept me scared of my basement for so long was necessarily just the basement door opening, because like I said, it could have just been the wind. I think it was the fact that at the time of the basement door opening, the only nearby window had been shut.
{{By-cpwuser|ColorlessAngelz}}