Scary Stories, Rituals, and Urban Legends

If You Wake Up to Find an Old Television on Your Porch, Get Rid Of It!

It wasn't any day out of the ordinary; towards the end of summer time. All the kids were about to go back to school. At first, people thought the televisions were a prank. Just some teenagers getting the last of the craziness out of their system before buckling down for another year of school. Most of the people in our small town in Virginia assumed they were broken. They took them out to the side of the road to be picked up with the rest of the trash.

My wife Ana and I had just moved here about two months ago. I was offered an amazing job opportunity that couldn't be passed up.

We wanted a better life for our children and as hard as it was to leave our families behind, we made the move. Things were great at first glance. We loved the new school that the kids were zoned for. People in town waved at one another. It was like something out of an old TV show.

Virginia weather is nothing at all like Georgia's is. That's where we had come from. It's nice to be able to go outside more and enjoy nature without being cooked alive.

There were barbecues, fireworks, tire swings at the lake... I couldn't imagine much mischief could take place in a town like this. But I was wrong. That's what happens when you make assumptions, especially about a whole town of people.

Something isn't right here, not by a long shot. However, we had sacrificed everything that we had in order to move here. There's no other option but to stay and make this opportunity work; for better or for worse.

Anyway back to the TVs, they were old, assorted models. Most of the ones that we had as kids; before the flat screen came out.

They don't offer any high-definition. You can't connect them to the internet. If you were lucky enough you'd be able to get one with a VHS player attached on the bottom.

That's not the case now though. My mind reels about thinking of the models left on doorsteps with VHS attachments.

Are there tapes in them? Have the people even checked? I don't know whether to feel sorry for them thankful that I wasn't one of them; although this scenario's left me thinking that there isn't much to be thankful for, not... not anymore.

See, people think they want the answers to life. The ultimate question, the only one that really matters when it comes down to it, is death.

How am I going to die? How old will I be? Will I be alone? Will my children go before me?

I used to be one of those people, but now I have my answer. And will spend every second left of my living life wishing I never got it.

There weren't any knocks on the door. The doorbell didn't ring. I just simply woke up, opened my front door to smoke a cigarette and there it was; an old Magnavox television set.

It wasn't dusty. It looked like it was in good condition. The screen even still shined. But, this didn't belong to me. It couldn't have. I threw out this exact same television set over twenty years ago.

I had seen an uprise in an older television sets being set out on the curb. I didn't do this with that one. Nostalgia caused me to bring it right inside to see if it still worked. Something inside of me shifted the instant the screen clicked on. First there was only static; along with indecipherable white noise. But soon, the reflection that stared back at me through the television screen changed.

I was older... but not elderly. Hints of gray had just started to flirt with the hair on my temples. Silver streaks shone through the red of my beard. I'll have to admit, for a second vanity took hold before rationality. A little older? Yes. A little gray? Absolutely. But I still looked damn good.

The surroundings in the television screen warped and changed. The scene depicted a dark and dingy hospital room. I am laid up in bed; an oxygen mask was placed over my face and it looked like I was being fed intravenously.

A dark figure crept ever closer to me from a far corner. His body was monstrously thin and rigid. Bones protruded from his back like he was preparing to shift forms. Where his face should have been there was only a static filled screen. I'm not being colorful either, he literally had a television screen for a face. Images of my contorted and twisted body suddenly flipped through it. This thing was channel surfing through every level of pain the human body could experience.

My body was riddled with tubes, the largest one inserted at the base of my throat. It was like watching a movie; all fuzziness and static had left. Leaving a terrifying clarity to the screen. I ridiculously I called out to myself; screamed at myself to turn around. I half expected the other me to hear. He...well... I should say, did not hear.

My wife sat in a small chair next to my shell of a body. Her slender frame wracked with stifled sobs. While still beautiful, stress and sorrow hadn't been as kind to her aging process as it had been to mine. Before the cancer that is. She looked withered; her eyes held no hope.

A doctor came into the room and told her that they had done all they could treatment wise. But unfortunately, it had spread too far to be helped. They said those fatal words, giving my murderer a name; advanced stage esophageal cancer.

My thumb flew to the power button and pressed it. I didn't want to see any more, know anymore or hear anymore. If I turned it off before seeing anything more, I could still chalk it up to insanity. This wasn't real.

But the television wouldn't turn off. I reached for the cord, ready to yank it out of its outlet and take the whole thing to the trash. The moment my fingers wrapped around it, my wife asked a question.

" If we had caught this sooner would you have been able to save him?"

Doctor looked at her woefully shook his head telling her that at this point it was hard to say. It was a miracle that I had survived this long with this much damage to my throat. She then asked how long ago he thinks the cancer developed and said that I'd been having problems with my voice. She said I'd been losing it off and on for the past four years or so. She explained how I worked at a job where I had to yell all the time. We figured that that's what the strain on my voice was from.

The doctor replied that sometimes... in such cases, it can be treated and go into remission. However, in my case me losing my voice was likely signs of the cancer gaining strength; expanding. Even if we had found it two years ago, there wouldn't have been much different of an outcome.

I yanked cord out of the wall with all of my might; trying to end my misery. The screen shut off; white flashing through black. In those final moments, just as the white before the screen were consumed with black, I saw so many flashes of many things.

Once you see the static man, you'll always be on his radar. He will start to make himself known in your real world. And the closer he gets to you, the closer your death follows behind.

So please...I am begging you. If you wake up one morning and find a television on your porch rid, get rid of it! Do not bring it into your home. Do not plug it in because if you do... you'll find out all the things that you don't want to know. I did... I've seen how I die and I've seen how you all do too.

Believe me, it's not something you want to know.

XOXO JADE