THE CRONE

1. 2016-07-08 at 1:14 PM UTC

   #1
   

   -SpectraL coward [the spuriously bluish-lilac bushman]
   [INDENT] Last weekend my friend and I went hiking in the Catskills (near Sundown Forest FWIW) and found this really creepy statue while fucking around in some caves. It has nails in its eyes and a noose around its neck. Looks like it might be old. I don’t think its been there very long, but its weird, because this cave was way off the trail. Someone had a fire in there not too long ago.
   The statue really wigged me out but my buddy decided to take it home with him even though I told him not to. Everyone says that theres devil worshippers that come out here to sacrifice animals and do their spells and shit so I didn’t want anything to do with this thing.
   A couple days later my friend calls me and tells me that he thinks the statue is haunted because it keeps moving from its spot and he keeps smelling weird stuff. Says he can’t sleep at night because a banging noise keeps waking him up. Now, last night someone knocked on his door but no one was there when he opened it, and he’s super weirded out. He thinks he has a ghost because of the statue.
   It must just be a coincidence but I think he’s actually scared. Before we go set thing on fire, I wanted to see if anyone knows what it is. Anyone ever seen something like this or heard of a statue causing ghosts?
   [/INDENT] Over the next several hours, the post received dozens of responses, each of them offering a different piece of advice. Some believed that the carving had its roots in voodoo, others thought it was the work of a Satanic cult, and a few even believed that the creepy statue was placed in the woods specifically to scare errant hikers – and was apparently doing its job really well. Some posters even offered to purchase the idol, while others offered insults.
   That night, the man returned with a frantic, frightening update to his issue with the haunted statue.
   [h=2]FRIGHTENING PHENOMENA BEGINS TO MANIFEST[/h] Close-up photograph of The Crone in the New York cave | Via imgur
   [INDENT] My friend showed up here at like 11:30 PM. He’s out-of-his-mind scared. Never seen him like this before. I’m going to do my best to remember everything he just told me because it was a lot, but long story short, he’s sleeping over because something is in his house.
   We found the statue on Sunday, and like I said, I told him not to take it because it gave me bad vibes, but he took it anyway. He’s been an atheist as long as I’ve known him, so when he told me that something was going on, I thought he was just fucking with me because I knows I like to watch paranormal shows (he always made fun of me for it).
   It started out just as knocks and banging, but he said that by Wednesday he started waking up in the middle of the night feeling like someone was watching him. This kept happening throughout the week, and every time he’d wake up, he would smell a really strong scent like pond water. He doesn’t believe any of this paranormal stuff, so he just ignored it until a few days ago when the statue moved from his desk into his living room. He says that every night since Thursday, its moved into a different room than where he left it. He thought it was his dog moving it around because it smelled funny, but his dog won’t go anywhere near it. He says that she’s actually peed in the house three nights in a row and she’s never, ever done that.
   Last night someone knocked on his door at three in the morning, but when he went to open it there was no one there. His motion lights weren’t on and there weren’t any cars in his driveway. He said that he opened up the door to look outside, and thats when he knew that he made a big mistake. Like he just felt like he shouldn’t have opened his door. Thats why I made this post in the first place. At that point, I didn’t have any reason not to believe him, because it had gone way beyond a joke, and he actually sounded really, really fucking scared on the phone. He kept telling me that he was going to burn the statue because he knows that something followed him home.
   Anyway, he stayed up all night and then decided to go to the movies to take his mind off of it. When he got home, he said it felt like everything was fine, and he decided to finally go to bed. This is where it gets super fucked up. He says that when he woke up, which wasn’t until like 10:00PM, it was because his dog was barking like crazy. He said the pond water smell was stronger than ever, and when he went out into his hallway he saw all of these muddy footprints everywhere. Not like shoe prints, but barefoot. All of his doors and windows were locked (after someone knocked on his door he freaked out and made sure everything was locked up) so there’s no fucking way anyone could have gotten inside.
   Sitting in the living room was the fucking statue, which had moved again, and he says that when he started to go near it he heard someone breathing “like his grandpa with the tracheotomy”. He peaced-the-fuck-out and now he and his dog are sleeping in my guest room tonight.
   I’ve never seen him this scared, and he even started crying. I have no fucking idea what do to. I believe him because he has no reason to lie about this, because it’s gone way too far to be a joke now. I know that everyone says not to burn it or whatever, so what the fuck do we do? He wants me to go to his house to get the statue tomorrow, but I’m too fucking freaked out to take it back to where we found it, because I don’t want to see whoever put there.
   [/INDENT] [h=2]THE CRONE MAKES ITS WAY TO THE MUSEUM[/h] The Crone: a haunted artifact in The Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult
   Just a few months prior to the frightening reddit post, Dana and I had the good fortune to assist the Finding Bigfoot team as paranormal experts in their search for supernatural Sasquatch sightings, but I never anticipated that the two-week adventure in the California mountains would result in the acquisition of a new haunted object.
   At the tail end of the season’s Finding Bigfoot filming schedule, one of the production assistants, Chris Carter, was taking a break in the production van, scrolling through reddit when he stumbled onto the hiker’s thread. Having spent a lot of time on the road with Dana and I, hearing tales of our haunted objects during the “supernatural” episode shoot, he logged in and commented that the hikers should get in touch with us, passing along our contact information. Later that night, an email arrived in my inbox.
   It was the hiker, whose name was Danny, and he was requesting my help. He pointed me towards his reddit post for a quick backstory, and it didn’t take me long to suggest that he not only return the statue to the place he’d found it, but to apologize to whoever – or whatever – they’d stolen from. I asked him a few questions about the location they’d discovered the figure and warned him against burning, throwing away, or otherwise destroying the object, which could have potentially made things even worse for the two.
   I ended my correspondence by telling Danny that, if he was truly frightened, we could handle, store, and study the object safely. Two days later, I received another email.
   [INDENT] Thanks for the advice. Today we went back to my friend’s house to get the statue and return it. When we got there, I saw the muddy footprints he was talking about and the whole place smelled like a dog that had just rolled around in the dirt. His dog wouldn’t even come in the house. He went to show me where the statue was when he left last night but it was gone. When we found it it was in his hallway and there was a big crack in the wall like it had been thrown there. He swears that he never touched the thing and left it in his living room.
   We did what you said and explained that we were sorry about taking it and that we wanted to give it back to the cave and asked it what we should do. I don’t know if it was the feeling you were talking about but we both just felt like we should never go back to that cave again. He said he felt like we needed to send it to you.
   When we were standing in the hallway talking to this thing his dog started barking like crazy outside and when we went to see what was going on, we both thought we saw a woman standing in the dark corner of his living room. She was totally naked, really old, and dripping water, and her eyes sort of glowed in the dark. She was hunched over near his shelves. We both freaked the fuck out and ran outside, and this was in the middle of day. Whoever it was, wasn’t there when we went back in. We grabbed the statue and apologized again, wrapped it in a pillowcase and put it in a box. He’s just going to send it to you.
   To answer your questions, I didn’t see any jedielry or pictures or anything by the statue but there were a lot of leaves covering everything. There was some broken class and a cup near the fire. My friend says he thinks there might have been some hair on it but he brushed it off without thinking about it. We don’t remember any weird symbols or anything in the cave. There were a lot of twigs piled around the foot of the statue but thats it.
   Everyone has always talked about how people go into those parts of there woods to worship the devil and do ceremonies and stuff, even when my parents were kids. The woods not far from where we were are even called [omitted] because of it. I fucking told him to leave this statue there because it was probably from some weird ceremony out there but he never believed in ghosts or the devil or anything.
   Right now it’s sitting in the trunk of his car at his house. Give me your address and we’ll mail it to you tomorrow. If I knew it was going to be this bad I would never have let him take it out of that cave. Thanks for not calling us fucking idiots and telling us how stupid we are like the rest of the thread. This is the whole reason I used a throwaway to begin with.
   [/INDENT]
2. 2016-07-08 at 1:22 PM UTC

   #2
   

   -SpectraL coward [the spuriously bluish-lilac bushman]
   Dana Matthews, my wife and fellow museum curator, carried the box into the Weird HQ office and placed it on my desk. We carefully cut the package open to reveal a hard lump wrapped in a stained pillowcase. As we slowly peeled back the cloth, rusty nails hammered into wooden eyes became visible, followed by a noose tightened around the statue’s neck. Whatever purpose this piece was created for, it wasn’t nice.
   The figure looked menacing, but there were a few things that were a bit confusing about the piece. The most obvious detail was that while the carving itself looked weathered and aged, as did the nails, the rope wrapped around its neck couldn’t have been more than a year old. The carving had obviously been placed in the cave recently with the new addition of the noose, if the entire thing wasn’t a just a hoax to begin with.
   As we do with all new items that arrive at the museum, we snapped a series of preliminary photos capturing the artifact just as it was when it arrived, jotted down some notes, and took a few measurements. Then, we locked the office and left to run errands. When you’ve been sent countless “haunted” objects through the years, it’s hard to shake the preconceived notion that the creepy porcelain clowns, weird paintings, and African idols will never live up to their alleged reputations – they rarely do. So for us, the arrival of The Crone was just another day at the office.
   Later that evening, while sitting in the living room watching a movie, Dana and I were startled by a commotion in the office. Thinking it was our two cats, I volunteered to break up the fight, only to realize upon walking into the office that the door had been closed the entire time. Nothing seemed out of place, and the cats were nowhere to be found. In fact, our feline familiars were in another room entirely, cowering beneath the bed, afraid to leave.
   I walked back into the office in an attempt to look for the source of the noises, but everything seemed in order.. until I almost stepped on Jesus.
   Lying on the floor was a plastic figurine of Christ, normally found nailed to a crucifix. As I turned him over in my hands, I realized that he was missing an arm. On the complete opposite side of the room, swinging silently on a cross hung in the corner, was Jesus’ missing appendage. Something had not only managed to pull Christ from the crucifix without removing it from the wall, it had thrown the figure across the room. I’ve still never been able to find the nails from Jesus’ hands and feet.
   Sitting directly below the now-desecrated cross was The Crone.
   
   Whether or not the new artifact was to blame, Dana and I wasted no time setting up 24-hour surveillance on the object. We placed a motion-activated trail camera in the corner of the office facing directly in the direction that the desecrated crucifix hung, covering a selection of the most active artifacts in our collection. If something was causing anomalous movement, we were going to capture it.
   For nearly two months the motion activated camera sat in the room, but when we checked the SD card each morning, there was no evidence of paranormal activity. Sure, there were occasional bumps in the night, but when you store hundreds of haunted, cursed, and supernaturally-influenced objects in your home, you come to expect it. Still, there was nothing to point toward The Crone being to blame for any of it.
   Then, on March 2, between the hours of 3:00am and 4:00am, the camera triggered three times.
   
   Initial analysis showed a few strange anomalies floating in and out of frame, one of which even appeared to have its own light source, but it wasn’t until we stitched the frames together that we discovered something really eerie: The Crone had moved, ever so slightly, on its own.
   Things only got stranger from there. Several weeks later, with no further anomalous activity captured, Dana called me into the living room to ask me why I’d stood on the furniture after a shower, pointing to the wet footprints that appeared to stand on the back of our couch. Only I’d not taken a shower for hours.
   Dana points out a wet footprint. Hopefully she’ll forgive me for posting this photo of her looking worried.
   For days, the earthy scent of pond water lingered in the house, with an intense feeling of dread and paranoia following it. There was an undeniable sense that something was with us, just waiting for the right moment to reveal itself.
   One evening, after enduring the overbearing weight of a hidden presence and stink of algae for two weeks, we’d had enough. We were in the middle of a new episode of Paranormal Lockdown when the smell of pond water became so great, we couldn’t stand it.
   Haunted objects, like misbehaving children, tend to respond and retaliate to the attention given to them during “tantrums”, but our usual routine of ignoring the bad behavior wasn’t working. We were past due for a sit-down discussion with The Crone. No one interrupts our paranormal television – not even terrifying entities.
   I stormed into the office, grabbed the carving, and marched back into the living room, slamming it down on the coffee table. I sat back down on the couch and began addressing the entity directly, something that should never be done lightly. I explained that we were happy to give The Crone a home, but as this was our house, we had rules. It’s a speech I’ve given to most of the objects in the museum at one time or another, and one that tends to work.
   “If we’d left you with the hikers,” I said, “you would have found your way into a fire pit or a garbage can. If you found your way to a priest, you’d be bound and buried, or worse, locked on a dusty shelf for years. We’re happy for you to live here, but only if you respect the situation. If you’ve got unfinished business, we’ll help you put it to bed, but if you don’t treat us respectfully, you’re going in the box.”
   “In the box” is a phrase we’ve reserved for artifacts that don’t play nice, have nasty side effects, or are just plain malevolent. These objects, unlike the rest in the collection, have their own dedicated lock boxes – solitary confinement, if you will. Usually, the threat of a lock up is enough to pacify a situation. Not this time.
   As soon as I uttered the magic words, Dana sprang up from the couch, drawing my attention to the sound of rushing water from the other side of the house. We’d dealt with a broken pipe in the recent past, and the sound of water spilling onto our laundry room floor was a panic-inducing noise. We rushed toward the sound, only for it to cease as we entered the hall. There was no water, but behind us, back in the living room, we could hear the dull “thud” of something hitting the floor. The Crone had managed to roll off the coffee table and under our television stand.
   As I knelt down and reached under the stand to grab the carving, Dana yelled out and rushed to my side. When I turned to look at her, she was propping the television up with both hands. The screen had nearly fallen directly onto my head. As we shared a brief look of fear and agreement, three loud knocks reverberated from the living room wall, rattling the picture frames and flickering the bulb from the single lamp providing our room with light.
   “In the box, it is,” I muttered.
   That evening, the Crone became one of the few objects not stored in an open air display when not on tour. We prepared a special box for the statue, wrapped it back in the pillowcase it had arrived in, and clicked a padlock shut. The strange scents and terrible feelings all but disappeared, but the shadowy presence never quite left.
   
   
   UPDATE 7/6/16: WHISPERS OF THE CRUCIFIX NAILS
   
   This morning I woke to a chilling message sent to the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult Facebook page. The message was from Jackae J., a regular in the museum’s live video feed chat, and she was informing me that not only could she not view the paranormal research lab’s live feed when The Crone or the Idol of Nightmares were on display, but that an entity had come to her in her sleep to deliver a message. [INDENT]Ok, I won’t be viewing Billy [The Idol of Nightmares], or The Crone anytime soon on the live feed. I have stayed up and watched your live events, and your items being streamed for the past month. I am a former massage therapist with training in Reiki. Once I started my training was when I really started seeing, and feeling the paranormal.
   Well, after last night’s live feed, I stayed up to wish Billy hello. About 4:40ish this morning, I woke up to the weight of someone sitting on my back. I figured it was our 2 year old daughter. That’s how heavy this was. When I moved I actually felt each leg-like limb extend and slide off of me. My whole body was flushed with heat, and broke out into immediate goosebumps, and sweat. A few moments later their was a loud bang, followed by my two dogs running to the living room, from their beds in our laundry room.
   But the worst part of this is, prior to waking up, I was dreaming that a woman was whispering in my ear that Greg has swallowed the missing crucifix nails. That she dropped them in his mouth while he was sleeping. That’s why I wrote you guys. Im taking everything with a grain of salt, as I know you will. Just wanted to share why I’m not going back to sleep tonight. For my daughters sake, I have to be a bit cautious. I have brought home strays before unknowingly.[/INDENT] As soon as I read the message, a cold chill ran down my spine. Just days after The Crone arrived at Weird HQ and started dropping televisions and desecrating crucifixes, I came down with some severe, stabbing stomach pains which lasted about a week. The piercing pain was enough to make me consider a hospital visit, but I never once considered connecting them to The Crone’s arrival. Not until now.
   “I have learned to ignore at and listen to spirits as needed,” Jackae wrote. “But that one was so specific I wanted to tell you.. she’s very proud of that.”
   Did the entity attached to The Crone really drop the missing crucifix nails into my mouth as I slept, causing my severe stomach pain? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
3. 2016-10-12 at 1:14 AM UTC

   #3
   The Self Taught Man Black Hole
   THE TINE
   
   bumping for zongo.
   
4. 2016-11-16 at 8:15 PM UTC

   #4
   The Self Taught Man Black Hole
   Why do supernatural entities always gotta do bad shit...
5. 2016-11-17 at 1:36 AM UTC

   #5
   The Self Taught Man Black Hole
   the tinne
6. 2019-06-09 at 1:17 AM UTC

   #6
   

   kroz weak whyte, frothy cuck, and former twink

   Originally posted by The Self Taught Man Why do supernatural entities always gotta do bad shit…

   
   they don't always