An urban legend, according to Google, is a humorous or horrific story or piece of information circulated as though true, especially one purporting to involve someone vaguely related or known to the teller. They don’t sound that bad, right? I’m sure the majority of you have heard of Bloody Mary, where you go into your bathroom with the lights off and say her name three times into the mirror and she’ll appear within the mirror.
You may have also heard of Slenderman, the tall, lanky, no face person lurking around forests waiting to steal children or to kill someone- they even created a game out of him and let me tell you, it is spooky if you play at night and by yourself. There are some urban legends that lurk around the Internet as well as the world that some people haven’t heard of yet and they will send a chill down your spine.
The Origin of Urban Legends
Ever wondered why an urban legend gets its existence, seemingly out of nowhere? That how a foolish story can just get inside a mind and become famous for generations to come? It is because there is no foolish story that ceases to be obliterated from the minds of the most intelligent species. True, real life incidents take place that are too peculiar to be told as an actual incident hence they become the tales that are told to naughty children by mothers late at nights and anecdotes youngsters share in their camping trips just for the sake of hilarity.
1. COW HEAD
A picture of the Cow Head from movie based on this urban legend.
Source: 7 Thai Shock
This particular story is rumored to be so scary and so psychologically disturbing that people have had nightmares because of it and that people would die of fright from hearing it. The story of Cow Head came from Japan in the 17th century with numerous articles written about it because people were left trembling with fear for days after hearing it until they eventually died from fright. Because so many passed away from hearing this story, apparently, there are many unknown parts of the story that are still hidden within the minds of the deceased, however, there are still a few rumors about it circulating the Internet.
One rumor is that one elementary school teacher came into some fragments of the original story of Cow Head and was taking his class on a field trip one day. The class often time was out of control on long field trips, making the only thing to quiet them down was ghost stories told by their teacher. He announced to his class that he was going to tell them the legendary story of Cow Head when his students grew into a panic and told him to stop. One child turned pale, apparently, and covered his ears while the others screamed and continued to tell the teacher to stop.
The teacher ignored their pleas and continued to tell the story. The children claim that their teacher’s eyes went completely black as he started to tell the story, almost as if some unseen force possessed him. An hour after telling the story, the teacher came back to his senses and realized that the bus had crashed into a ditch. The bus driver was slumped over his steering wheel covered in sweat and shivering from fright while the rest of the children on the bus fainted because they were so scared.
According to Scary For Kids, you cannot find the story of Cow Head anywhere on the Internet, at least not in English. Fragments of the story have been found, though, and they could put together a few bits and pieces of what the story is actually about. Here has what been gathered about Cow Head: There is a small, deserted village in the middle of nowhere where archeologists are digging to find out why no one lives there. While digging, they found that a skeleton that had a head like a cow and a body like a man.
They decided to do some research on the body they discovered and found that years before there was a famine. During the famine, the people in the village were starving and started to eat their cows and horses for survival. Soon after eating all of their horses and cows, they started to eat their pets (cats, dogs, etc.) but were still hungry after that. One day, a strange figure started to walk through their village and appeared to have a head of a cow and a body of a man. Since the village was absolutely starving, they attacked this man and devoured him to the bone.
From that day forward, the village became cursed and hell broke loose amongst the villagers. Unfortunately, that was the only found information about the original Cow Head story. It seems that the story has disappeared from the Internet, leaving nothing behind except the beginning of this horrific, terrifying story. Have you read Cow Head? Do you know the entire story? Be careful, you may accidentally stumble upon something related to this story, and it may be the last thing you ever read.
2. SLIT MOUTH WOMAN
What she supposedly looks like.
Source: Draft House
Slit Mouth Woman, or also known as Kuchisake-Onna, is one of the most terrifying and frightening urban legends that is lurking around Japan. People claim that if she asks you a question, you better have the right answer, or even answer her for that matter- or else. She was mutilated by her jealous husband and murdered by him, making her come back from the dead and seeking revenge on anyone that answers her one true question: “Am I Pretty?” As the story goes, Kuchisake was a beautiful woman who married a man that deemed her as unfaithful. He was right, for Kuchisake fell for another man and was planning to leave her husband for the man whom she fell in love with.
Due to this, her current husband grew to be viciously jealous and knocked her unconscious, tying her up to a chair. When she woke up from the brutal attack, he proceeded to threaten Kuchisake that he would kill her if she ever left him. He then grabbed a large pair of scissors and sliced her face into a permanent smile. He smirked at her and said, “Who will think you’re pretty now?” and then sliced her head off of her body. Regret crept into his soul and he stabbed himself to death so he didn’t have to live with the constant reminder that he murdered his beautiful wife.
Kuchisake-Onna is known to hide in plain sight, rumored to look like an Asian woman with long, black hair and wearing a beige trench coat. She has now been rumored to be wearing a mask over her face, making it easy for her to blend into the large crowds of Japan, quietly and secretively hunting her prey. She can come for you at any time of the day, no matter where you are, and will always hide in the shadows wearing something to hide her disfigurement.
She will stand in front of you in a heartbeat, blocking your path, and holding a large pair of scissors while asking, “Am I Pretty?” Before you have a chance to answer, she will reveal her face to you: a mouth sliced into a horrendous smile that exposes her tongue and teeth. She will ask you, “Am I Pretty Now?” If you answer yes or try to scream, she will slash your face so that way it looks just like hers. If you attempt to run, that’s even worse because she is rumored to be extremely quick and will cut you in half out of extreme anger. Lastly, if you answer no to her, she will walk away and leave you be- until you realize that she followed you home, watched your every single move, and kills you in your sleep.
Many people also say that to escape from her, you have to outwit her, meaning you have to either offer candy or money to her so that way you have a chance to run away. People also exclaim that if you ask her if she thinks you’re pretty or if you claim she is “so-so”, her confusion and pausing moment will give you a chance to escape her unruly self. There is a more recent twist to this story, though, and that is that a woman used to chase and terrify local children that eventually led parents to complain to the police. When the police finally caught her, she frantically ran into traffic and was killed instantly by a car, leaving her injuries to include severe head trauma and facial lacerations that looked like a jagged, bloody, demented smile. Which story do you believe of this horrid slit-mouth woman? Be careful walking alone at night, you may never know what is hiding within the shadows of an alleyway.
3. THE BLACK-EYED CHILDREN
What these black eyed children should look like.
Source: The Ghost Diaries
If you are a regular on YouTube like I am, then I am sure you have heard of Shane Dawson. He talked about The Black-Eyed Children in one of his videos and talked about one of his personal experience with these types of children. Many people, though, do not know whom or what these black-eyed children are, making this particular urban legend intriguing yet eerily creepy because these children are dark and demented- I mean come on, anything with evil children is just down right scary and traumatizing.
Who are the black-eyed children? These children are rumored to be paranormal creatures that do resemble children by the ages of 6 and 16. They have extremely pale skin and black eyes, and are reportedly seen hitchhiking or panhandling people in public or alone. They have also been reported to come up to people in their homes and ring their doorbell, asking them to come inside and practically forcing themselves inside of a person’s home.
The legend of these children came from postings in 1996 where a Texas reporter by the name of Brian Bethel wrote about two alleged sightings of the black-eyed kids. He claimed that the sighting of these two children were in Abilene, Texas in the year of 1996 and claimed that a person in Portland, Oregon had a very similar experience to his. His story quickly rose to fame and he continuously answered people about his experience with these children and was even featured on Monsters and Mysteries in America in 2012, telling the world his infamous encounter with these children.
People report around the world that when they have experiences with these children, they can’t explain why they feel these children are dangerous and supernatural- they just are. They claim that these children can also be seen playing games or singing the nursery songs Old Man Long Legs or HeJumped into a Bramble Bush. If you are looking to encounter a black-eyed child, they are known to be near abandoned or deserted places, or will just come right up to your doorstep (either alone or in a pair) with a sense of strong confidence or complete shyness and hide their eyes from you.
They will talk with extreme eloquence that is far beyond their age they appear to be. These children will attempt to push their way inside of your home by speaking and using a voice that is an adults voice and begging you to let them inside because there is apparent danger they are “hiding” from or they are looking for a phone to use. They will sometimes stop the games they are playing and stare at you, then run up to you and ask you for a ride home or for a place to stay. If you agree to help them and find out that their eyes are completely black, they grow angry and demand you to comply their demands. People have claimed that they feel these children are using some form of mind-control. Don’t answer your door all the time- you may never know who is on the other side of it, beckoning to enter your home.
4. THE CROSLEY MONSTER
Where this monster likes to live- the woods.
Source: Thought Catalog
If you live in Indiana, driven through there, or have relatives/friends from there, then they are well aware of the monster that is lurking within the woods. It simply resembles the stories of Bigfoot since some areas around the world have their very own twists and creatures that resemble or are Bigfoot. In July 2006, four boys went camping in the woods where they came across something that chilled them to the bones. They setup their camp and decided to take a trip to the fishing pond in Crosley, Indiana.
They fished all day and in the evening time when they were wrapping up their day, they heard a loud creature moving through the brush behind them. Thinking it was a deer or another animal, they casually turned around and instead of seeing a deer running through the brush, they saw a set of glowing red eyes peering through the leaves at them. The boys claim that they eyes were like floating saucers that were eight feet off of the ground and were just hanging there motionless.
One boy bravely reached for his flashlight, shivering with fright, and when he turned his light on to the creature, fear washed over the four boys. The sight of this creature was so intense to them and so terrifying that he dropped his flashlight onto the ground, making them engulfed in darkness again. Once in darkness, this creature became viciously violent and started to grunt in anger and shake the trees around the boys. The boys exclaimed that when there was a brief moment of light on the beast, they could see he was covered in matted, dirty hair head to toe, his glowing red eyes were slanted with anger and he bared his bright yellow teeth at them in anger.
As the boys stood there in fear, watching the beast work himself into an uncontrollable fit of rage, the beast lunged himself forward to the boys. They started to spring through the woods then, the beast galloping on all fours behind them, almost touching their heels. They reached the main road in a matter of seconds and jutted down the road to their car. As the continued to frantically sprint down the road, a boy turned his head over his shoulder and saw the beast run hastily into the cornfield on the other side of the road. Another encounter of this giant beast was when a boy went into the same woods a few weeks later in the spirit of squirrel hunting.
He heard the same loud rustling noise behind him and turned slowly, thinking it was a squirrel. He raised his shotgun and patiently waited for the little creature to emerge from a tree; but, instead of a little creature skimping about, the boy heard the rustling grow more intense and saw a giant creature come from the thick branches and leaves. The boy couldn’t really see what the creature looked like, but it started to encircle him and based off of the quick, loud sudden movements this creature was doing, the boy could tell it was large- and terrifying. The boy attempted to follow the movements of the creature and continued to hold his shotgun up to his shoulders, his fingers trembling with fear.
The creature then exposed himself to the boy and gained the name as the Crosley Monster. He stood tall on his legs and then dropped to all fours and encircled the boy again, fear surging through his body. The creature seemed to be playful, though, despite his red eyes and matted hair. He was throwing leaves into the air as he ran around the boy but because the boy was so traumatized with fear, he ran into the woods and made it to safety. The Crosley Monster still lurks amongst the thick branches of this Indiana woods and stalks its prey every single day. The encounters of this beast like creature are terrifying and for those who dare to go into these woods may just experience something they never thought they would experience.
5. THE GOATMAN (MARYLAND)
One image that people believe the goatman looks like.
Source: Youtube
The Goatman is similar to the Cow Head urban legend simply because this story is about a half-animal, half-human combination. The Goatman is a half-human creature that has the head and the hindquarters of a goat with the body of a human. This urban legend lives in Maryland, USA and has been featured on Creepy Canada’s episode, Goatman: Prince George’s County, Maryland in 2006. This urban legend is based off of this: the Goatman is an axe-wielding creature that is, of course, half-human, half-animal (as his name suggests) that was a scientist in the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
This particular scientist was experimenting on goats and one day one experiment backfired on him, turning him into a mutated goat-like human being. Due to this mishap, the scientist grabbed an axe and started attacking cars and people in Beltsville, Maryland in an extreme fit of rage. Other variations of the Goatman legend state that he was a hermit who lives in the roads and can be seen walking along Fletchertown Road, or that the Goatman was the result of a DNA that was experimented and conducted by scientist Stephen Fletcher, and other variations include more supernatural happenings about the Goatman.
This legend is rumored to have started a long, long, long while ago but was brought to light in 1971 where the Goatman was blamed as the cause of death to a person’s dog. Teenagers keep this story alive by telling others that the Goatman comes and attacks couples who are sitting at Lover’s Lane, and that he could be often seen on Fletchertown Road. What version of the story do you believe? Or, do you believe in the Goatman at all? Urban legends have their own uncanny way of haunting you at nights since they feel so real. Maybe it is the edict of nature that the past is obligated to haunt the present.
If you ever feel that a certain legend is false or just a hoax, do your research before you conclude your beliefs. Many such people have had their lives changed after they found the verity of a legend to be true. Some most of the creepy urban legends, when told at the right time and place, can summon the evil right at the spot and twist minds as well as take lives. If you ever come across such a legend, do not act ignorantly. Do not think “there are no such things as ghosts”. Because when the bough breaks, demons and ghosts will be summoned and they will haunt you for the rest of your life, if you’d still have it!