Short Horror Stories

The Wrong Tape

Kathryn found the old tape while she was rummaging through her grandmother's attic. Dusty and frayed at the edges, the label simply read, "DO NOT WATCH." The aura of mystery immediately piqued her curiosity.

She decided to borrow her uncle's ancient VHS player to watch whatever forbidden memories the tape held. Once connected, the room was filled with the static hum of anticipation. She pushed the tape in and sat down, waiting for the magic of nostalgia.

However, what played out on the screen wasn't a memory, but a nightmarish tableau.

The video opened in a dimly lit room. A shaky camera angle showed a wooden chair in the center. Slowly, a dark figure approached the chair and sat down. The face of the figure was obscured, but the voice, it was familiar, and bone-chilling. It sounded just like Kathryn's recently deceased grandmother.

The figure began to speak in a soft, eerie whisper. "Those who watch this tape... will be visited." The message was simple and repeated three times.

Then, the scene changed, showing a montage of houses in the dead of night. The same figure was seen lurking outside windows, silently watching sleeping occupants. And then, to Kathryn's horror, the video cut to the outside of her very own house, capturing her bedroom window with her silhouette faintly visible inside.

The tape abruptly ended, and Kathryn was met with the hissing static of the TV screen. Panic rose in her chest as she realized the implications.

The next few nights were restless. Each little sound from the darkness, each whisper of wind, sent shivers down her spine. She kept her curtains firmly shut, but the feeling of being watched never left her.

One evening, a week later, a knock came at her door. When she answered, there stood an old woman, her face obscured by a hood. In a voice that Kathryn had come to dread, she said, "You shouldn't have watched the tape."

Before Kathryn could react, the woman handed her another VHS tape. It looked identical to the one she had found in her grandmother's attic, except this label read, "PASS IT ON."

Kathryn understood the terrible cycle she had become a part of. To free herself from the watcher's gaze, someone else would need to see the tape.

To this day, somewhere in an attic or a dusty old store, that cursed tape waits, and with it, the horrifying truth that watching it brings. The wrong tape, once seen, can never be unseen.