This story happened about a month ago. I've lived most of my life in the US, but the past 3 years I've been here in Colombia studying my career. At college, when there's a free period, a group of friends and I usually just gather around and talk about homework or simply play cards, normal stuff. One day, a friend called Dave told the group that he found a pretty cool game we could play, it was called "No mires atrás" (Don't look back), it had been really popular around different horror websites and forums and most people on them had said they really had a frightening experience.
You need a piece of paper, a pen and a box of matches. The game consists of you "inviting" spirits into a kind of party. First you have to be alone in a house or an apartment (cliché), the place needs to be pitch black, so the best time to do it is after midnight and with all the lights off and windows closed (another cliché). Now, after you've done this you'll have to count the rooms in the house/apartment. Divide the piece of paper in the number of rooms that conform the place, and in each piece divided write down the invitation and the time you want to play, such as: "I summon any spirit who wants to come into my world to my reunion, which will go from 1:10am to 1:15am". Place the pieces in every room of the house including the one you're staying in and try to light a match. If you fail trying to light 3 matches then no one accepted your invitation (in this case it should be considered a positive thing) and you simply get out of there. However, if you manage to light a match, the reunion officially started, and all you have to do is "Don't look back". Pretty stupid, right?
After reading the rules and making fun of Dave at first, we started reading a bunch of experiences people shared on different websites and got very interested. Finally we figured what the hell? The semester was almost over and it would be fun to do something together. Another friend called Walter suggested a sleepover where we'd play videogames, eat, have fun and then proceed to play the "other game". All of us agreed, but needless to say NONE of us wanted to play at our houses. We didn't want to risk it, even if it turned out to be a lie.
Dave said we could forget about the sleepover and look for abandoned houses to enhance the horror instead. At that point we were so into the story that we all nodded, so that week we searched lots of neighborhoods looking for one, the problem was that the only 3 houses we found were in dangerous zones of the city, so the idea of playing "Don't look back" looked almost impossible.
Throughout that same week, the game began to spread in our semester and people were talking more and more about it each day that passed. A friend called Alice came to talk to our little group about the game, and said she wanted to play with us. We all welcomed her but told her that without a house or apartment to play in, there was no way to do it, to which she answered that she was going to keep an eye on her neighbor's apartment while they were on vacation. She even offered to throw a sleepover; we all gladly accepted her invitation.
The day had come, the semester was over and we were all excited to see what was going to happen. There were six of us: Karyn, Carlos, Dave, Walter, Alice and me. We arrived at Alice's apartment on the 4th floor; her neighbor's apartment was on floor 5.
The sleepover started pretty well, a few videogames, cooking some snacks, and even teasing one another. When the clock hit 11:00pm we turned off the videogame console and formed a little circle. To get "in the mood" all of us shared a personal experience we considered paranormal, and by the end of the second round we all felt closer to each other. Closer and scared.
Carlos said he didn't want to go through the experience, that he was just going to wait until everyone had done it. Dave (who's the typical daredevil) told him that he was going to look back during his turn, so everyone could see that it was all a stupid made up game, that he shouldn't be frightened about stuff like that.
At 12:00am we all climbed to the next floor and stood outside the apartment's door. We all synchronized our watches and set the rules: the first person enters at 12:25am and must play the game from 12:30am to 12:35am, when the time comes to an end we wait 30 seconds and if the person doesn't come out we would enter and look for him or her. Between games we would wait a lapse of 5 minutes so the next person could enter and prepare, and so on.
The order was going to be Karyn, me, Walter, Dave and Alice, since Carlos didn't want to play. And so, Karyn entered. While we waited no one said a word, the hallway was starting to get cold and my heart began to pound real hard, I started to feel a chill entering my body, which made my heart pound even harder. 12:35am, we all looked at each other and then stared at the door, to our relief Karyn opened it about 5 seconds later. Everyone asked if she was ok, she nodded and then turned to me, gave me the matchbox (Her hands were extremely cold) and told me "prepare to be scared". That phrase immediately made my heart rush even faster and harder, my legs began to feel weak, but I took a deep breath and entered the apartment.
I switched the light on and looked around the apartment counting the rooms: 3 bedrooms plus 2 bathrooms for a total of 5. I chose the master bedroom, which had plenty of space for me to sit down. I quickly ripped the page I had into 5 pieces with my very nervous clumsy hands and wrote "I invite the spirits that want to come to my world to a reunion which will go from 12:40am to 12:45am". I literally ran from one room to another placing the papers on the floor so I could gain some time, ran again to the entrance of the apartment to finally switch off the lights.
I turned around and could only see a few shadows: it was the furniture that was illuminated by a nearby light post whose light pierced the drapes of the living room. My hands and feet were ice cold, my heart was still thrashing inside my chest and my legs were about to fail me; I managed to get in the master bedroom using the light of my phone. Quickly looked at the time: 12:37am, I sat down at the bed facing the wall, because I honestly didn't want to see a thing. Then proceeded to light the matches, the first one didn't light, I took a deep breath and tried the second one, which burst into a little flame; I had now officially initiated the game.
I started to inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth, which kept me calm; I saw my wrist watch that marked 12:40am. At first, not a sound, no movements, no nothing, when I was closing my eyes I started to hear a slight thud coming from outside the room, followed by some voices. Goosebumps were all over my skin and my heart started racing again, I started to hear moaning outside the door, followed by a really huge scream which made me jump. Tears were now flowing out of my eyes, for I wanted to get out of that room, but I couldn't, mostly because I didn't have the strength to run out of there. I thought it couldn't get any worse, until it happened; I suddenly felt a strong presence behind my back, an outstanding amount of negative energy roaming around the room. I swallowed real hard and heard its voice, "Look at me", it said in this very calm tone. "Look. At.Me", it repeated. I couldn't move, couldn't speak. I was just sitting there, staring at my wrist watch, tears coming out of my eyes, wishing for the time to go faster.
The other voices started getting louder. The moaning wasn't moaning any more, the spirit in question started crying for help. Then, without a warning, the presence in my room shut the door closed. I could feel it passing from one side of the room to another, always penetrating me with its look. I started to feel a cold in my back that advanced to my chest, until it wrapped my entire body. At this point I was in shock, I couldn't do anything. I could feel something sitting behind me on the bed, it came closer, like if it was leaning into me. I firmly closed my eyes, only to hear a whisper in my ear saying, "Look at me" with this disturbingly calm monotone voice.
I immediately started praying. I could hear it started laughing behind me, but I didn't care, I continued. This kept on going for the rest of my experience. When it finally stopped laughing I opened my eyes and, without ending my prayer, I looked at my wrist watch: 12:40am. I slowly stood up and opened the door. Not a single sound, the only sign left of the game were the papers scattered around and the cold temperature of the apartment. With my legs shaking, I prayed all the way to the front door and opened it. My friends asked if I was ok, I nodded, gave the matchbox to Walter and sat on the floor of the hallway against a wall.
Walter took a look at me and entered the room. My friends looked at me and told me I looked extremely pale, but I said not to worry, that I was fine. I began to sweat profusely, the hallway seemed very hot now; I looked at Karyn and could see she was also sweating, so I didn't really made a big deal out of it.
At 12:49am Walter opened the door; we all looked at him surprised, he simply said that nothing had happened, that his first match lit up but nothing else, he didn't hear or feel anything, so he just got out. He passed the box of matches to Dave, who walked up to the door and turned around to tell us that he was only going to play for two minutes, all of us said it was fine, so he entered the apartment.
While we waited for the time to pass, Karyn approached me, sat beside me and asked me what I experienced. I told her what happened and she giggled a little. I asked her what was so funny and she told me her experience. Apparently a spirit told her she looked beautiful and that it wanted to see her smile. She giggled again, which made me laugh, then we both started laughing, we looked like two crazy people. Everyone else told us to be quiet, so we kept our silence. I don't know why I laughed, it just seemed funny at the moment.
At 12:57am we waited for Dave to come out, after 10 seconds nothing, 20 seconds nothing either, Carlos stood up, walked to the door and opened it real quick and yelled "Dave". We then saw Dave flying through the air (not literally) and tackling Carlos, they both fell to the ground. We all tried to get Dave away from Carlos but he wouldn't let go, he had his face buried in Carlos's shirt. "You looked back, didn't you, idiot?" asked Carlos. Dave nodded without letting Carlos go.
Two minutes later, he finally got away from him and laid on the ground looking at the ceiling, he looked as white as a piece of chalk, and his eyes were red from crying. Carlos asked him what happened. Dave just said, "I saw him", while shivering. "He was asking for Maria," he kept saying as Carlos carried him to Alice's apartment. None of us slept.
That same morning all of us except Dave and Carlos entered the apartment where we played; we picked up all the pieces of paper and searched for any sign of us ever being there. After it was all in order we returned back to Alice's. Dave was now looking better and told us what happened.
He said he stayed in what appeared to be the daughter's bedroom; his third match lit up and he immediately began to hear noises around the apartment and behind him in the same room. After one minute and thirty seconds into the game he turned around and saw a tall dog about 6 feet high, staring at him; and an even taller man with a hat standing next to the dog. Dave jumped out of the bed and threw himself out the bedroom door and into the living room. He tried to exit the apartment but could never find the door, he started screaming for help as he watched the tall man and his dog stare at him. The man appeared to be looking around the living room, then the dog started to say "Maria". He said he screamed at the top of his lungs but none of us answered. Then he saw a light and heard his name, he ran for it and threw himself out again, where Carlos caught him.
A week after the game I called Alice to see if she felt anything strange in her apartment, she said no, that everything was normal. But then two days later she texted me that her neighbors had a fight with the daughter, that apparently she was into witchcraft and had made several rituals in her bedroom, without her parents knowing, and now she was being answered.
This was by far the MOST intense experience I've had in my entire lifetime. Nothing has happened to any of us, even Dave, no paranormal experiences since the game. I still wonder though, why did none of us hear Dave scream, and why couldn't he find the door?
Sorry for the long story, I wanted to be as detailed as possible. Ask anything you want.
Loading comments....
