The Midnight Game: My Story



It happened a few years ago on Halloween night. A couple of friends and I were staying at my old place out on the boonies, having a small get together. It was just Claire, Lucy, her twin brother, Lucas, and I in the house. We all sat around in the basement watching corny old horror movies trying to think of something else to do.

We looked for the web for ideas and ended up coming across stories known as creepypastas. I read a few out loud. Some about mad men, some about monsters, and others about things we cherished as a child. But then, we got to the rituals. We all decided that we try out one for shits and giggles. Of course, we all agreed on not doing one that involved a mirror, seeing as how we read out the rules on how to survive a creepypasta. As everyone knows, mirrors are a big no-no in the creepypasta world. After a while of searching, we found one that we can all agree upon doing. It was called, “The Midnight Game”. If you have never heard of it, I’ll give you the gist of it.

The Midnight Game was an old pagan ritual used against those who had disobeyed the laws of their religion. It was mostly used as a scare tactic so no one will disobey. There were also suggestions not to play this game, seeing as you could die or at least live with permanent mental scarring. But what creepypasta ritual doesn’t suggest that? Yeah. Exactly. They all do because they are all bullshit… at least we thought they were. So we went to it. We care to follow the steps carefully, but seeing that the instructions were for one person playing, we had to make things up and hope that we were still doing it right.

For the first step, we all wrote our full names on separate pieces of paper and put a single drop of blood on our own page. For the second, we had the twins shut off every light in the house while I grabbed enough candles and matches for us all. Luckily, my mother had a ton of candles. She even managed to keep the house at a good temperature with them when the power went out. But, I’m getting off topic I’m sorry. While I was getting candles, Claire was filling sandwich bags full of salt for reasons I’ll explain sooner. When we were done, we all met up at the front door, placed our pieces of paper in front of it, and seeing as it was my house, I had to knock twenty two times just as the rules say to do. Upon the last knock, we all blew out our candles and opened the door. By doing so, we allowed the Midnight Man into my home, and when I did open that door I swear on all that is still good on this god forsaken rock that I felt something cold brush by me, and I’m sure the others felt it too. I closed the door and we immediately relight our candles.

The Midnight Game has now begun. Now the goal of this game is to avoid the Midnight Man at all costs until 3:33 AM. You have basically given the monster four and a half hours of play time. The plus side is that there are signs that the Midnight Man is near. Such as if your candle goes out. In that case, you are given ten seconds to relight it. But if you are unsuccessful, you must surround yourself in a circle of salt and remain there until 3:33 AM. However, if you are unsuccessful at doing either of those things, the Midnight Man will create a hallucination of your greatest fear and remove your organs one by one. Other indications include seeing a pitch black humanoid figure in the darkness, a sudden drop in temperature, and very soft whispering coming from an unknown area. So wanting to feel frightened, we all split up. Lucy and I stayed upstairs while Claire and Lucas took the basement. The first few minutes were fine. You hear the giggling, the laughter of others. We were all having fun wandering through that dark house trying to avoid an evil entity with malicious intent. None of us were frightened until we began noticing the signs of the Midnight Man’s presence. It began with the cold spots and escalated from there.

As I walked through the living room, I could just start to hear the whispers following me. I walked faster going through the dining room kitchen to get away. It was in the corridor that I passed Lucy and some nights I can’t help but wonder what I would have seen if I didn’t. Her candle was the first to go out. I heard her shriek, cuss, and struggle as she tried to find the matches in the dark. I am sad to say that I continued through the game even knowing what could happen. I guess I didn’t want to believe that there really was something out there that wanted to torment and kill us. I never imagined that anyone would… that anyone would die.

Exactly ten seconds after her candle went out, we began to hear screaming. We all moved as quickly as we could, but we weren’t fast enough. Lucy’s shriek stopped and all we could hear was this horrible gurgling sound. Slowly, we moved closer and closer until we saw her lying there, chest torn open with her organs set out neatly beside her. Lucas lost it and vomited all over the carpet while Claire started screaming. I however just stood there staring down at my dead friend. It was only when we heard someone chuckling that we remembered that this creature is still with us, and waiting for the right moment to strike.

We all went to the basement, not wanting to be far from one another for obvious reasons. He followed us though, and with the increased light being so close we could see the shadow shifting from all around. We were surrounded. And that is when I knew none of us were going to make it out alive. Lucas’s candle was the next to go out, but this time we were fast enough. He was shaking and cursing that the fucker took his candle. We watched in horror as the shadows reached out to claim their prize as if challenging the light and heard their whispers of threats for us to back off or suffer the consequences. Claire continued on with the game while I stayed around just long enough for Lucas to make a salt circle around him. Once he finished, I left him and as I did felt complete and total dread like I knew he was going to be the next to go. Claire and I went off in the same direction but split up at the end of the hall.

She went into my room and I went into the laundry room. That is when I heard my bedroom door slam shut while the laundry room door slid to a close. I pushed and shoved using as much of my own body weight as I could but that door wasn’t moving in the least. As we both desperately tried to get out we could hear Lucas screaming. But only when it stopped that the doors are open. Claire immediately went to Lucas while I slowly trailed behind. I already knew what I was going to see and I am sad to say that every prediction that I made was right. It seemed as if the salt had never been placed there and all that was left was what I think was Lucas. He was torn to shreds. Skull pounded into a pulp, limbs and other bits of flesh removed. He was completely unrecognizable.

Claire began to scream and cry, saying that it was all my fault, that we shouldn’t have played this stupid game. And all I did was stand there silently which only angered her further. She threw her own candle down and attacked me trying to swipe mine out of my hands so that we would both be in the dark. So we would die in this house in the hands of that monster.

As she tried to take my candle, I shoved her down to the ground where I saw two pale hands reach out and grab her. They dragged her into the blackness and despite her begging for help I did nothing. She betrayed me when she tried to have me killed and so I thought this is what I deserved. I left the basement, leaving the Midnight Man to do what he clearly does the best.

I went into the kitchen to check the time. It was 3:30 AM. I only had to survive three more minutes, but I could already hear the stairs creak as he came up them. I held onto my candle firmly as I felt the room get colder, and heard the whispers get louder. They mocked me for my foolishness, for my ignorance, and told me in great detail how I was going to die at the hands of their master.

I yelled and screamed for them to shut up, to shut their fucking mouths, but they only laughed. I looked back at the clock to see only a minute had gone by. When I turned my head back, I was greeted with a grin of the Midnight Man. He was incredibly tall, like a living tower of coal, and his face was almost bird-like. He had deep set eyes that glowed a golden color. His cheekbones were quite high and his nose was pointed, almost like a beak. His grin grew larger as I could feel my heart burst out of my chest, like he could sense my growing fear. The Midnight Man looked down at my candle and back to me, and winked as he blew it out. To even my surprise, I didn’t scream.

I ran as quickly as I could in the dark and as I did I felt small hands like those of children trying to grab me. But I made it to the front door. I thought I nearly ripped off its hinges as I open it with such force. Once I was out of that house, I ran faster than I ever thought I could, towards my neighbor’s home. Unfortunately, their driveway was long enough to be its own road and I only made it halfway down before I became tired and winded.

I turned around to see if he was chasing me, just in time to see what looked like a mass of black smoke collide with me. I don’t remember anything after that other than waking up in a hospital. The neighbor’s big St. Bernard found me that morning. I was clawed at, beaten, broken, and other things that I don’t wish to mention.

I was questioned by the police later about what happened. I told them that someone must have snuck into the house and murdered my friends. Technically I’m not really lying. Someone did get into the house and kill them; I just failed to mention that it was a supernatural being that we let in because we were bored. It’s not like they would have believed me if I told them the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Before they left, they asked me about one more thing. While that fucker brutalized me, I guessed he decided to brand me. On my back he carved two words, “PITCH BLACK”.

Now a few years have passed since the incident. But every night, every fucking night when I go to sleep I still see him reaching for me, attacking me and carving me up like a pumpkin. I’m not sure what is worse though. The nightmares or waking up and seeing him in my room staring down at me with those eyes and that shark-like grin. With every passing night he inches closer and closer to me trying to terrify me as he possibly can until he strikes. With that said, I don’t think I’ll be around much longer. Seeing him as my last nightmare, he was standing, right at my bedside.

Miss Pitchiner