'Child's play 1998' was the movie that set it all in motion for me. You know how sometimes you have 'something' buried or hidden inside you that even you are unaware of and all it takes is something to trigger it. It could be a sound, an action, a scene or, in my case, a movie.
My cousin had brought home the movie having borrowed it from a friend and, till date, I wondered why my parents let me watch the movie after we had realized it was a scary movie about forty minutes into playing it. I was the youngest in the family and not just that, I was only eight. My mum always had a way of turning things to favor her parenting style, so as we watched the credits roll by, she turned to me and said "this is why I don't want you having any dolls" and true to her word, she never bought me any more dolls and confiscated any I got. I was only allowed to play with monster trucks, airplanes and puzzles, which wasn't weird on its own except I'm a girl. But I never complained. I guess I've never been your typical girly-girl.
The rush of being on the edge with your eyes glued on the screen when part of you wants to shut them as you anticipate the next gore, the next pop-up, the next gruesome murder to occur, your ears itching to hear the characters scream as their lives get taken away from them; I loved it. Child's play was my first scary movie. I wanted to watch it and scare myself over and over again, but I couldn't. Being a minor and thus having no cellphone, I had little to no say about what movies or programs I had to watch, so I had no way of satisfying my hunger for that adrenaline rush. So, naturally, my love for it got forgotten somewhere at the back of my mind. That was until my third year in high school, where I met Sonia. We immediately bonded over our love for scary movies, and she reminded me of what it felt like, and I loved it. We would occasionally stay up late in the hostel past lights out so she could tell me all about the scary movies she had watched.
So what did I do as soon as I graduated and got my first android cellphone? You got that right, I went wild watching any and every scary movie I could lay my hands on. But that wasn't enough; the movies started getting predictable, they didn't scare me anymore, the rush was gone, so I went in a different direction. I began looking up sites, paranormal phenomena.
I was so engrossed in the dark web, but of course I had a limit. I would never indulge in the practice of the black magic practiced on the sites, occultic or anything similar, despite knowing everything there was to know about it. I spent every waking moment searching for something new and that was when I found it. A forum called 'don't think it don't say it'. Seeing it was the same phrase used in the movie 'the bye-bye man', I assumed it was a forum dedicated to the movie, so I joined. Turned out it was not a room for 'the bye-bye man' and definitely not any movie for that matter. It was a forum of witnesses testifying about 'he whose name you must not think about or worse mention'. I wanted to just brush it off because this seemed like something straight out of creepypasta, but then I couldn't as I noticed something. The testimonies were not from victims, but from their loved ones who watched them go through it until their deaths or, to be precise, suicide. The pattern leading to their suicide were all similar; paranoia, severe anxiety, spasms, nightmares leading to insomnia and a few cases of lucid dreams, amnesia and hallucinations and turns out 'don't think it, don't say it' was what the victims would often mumble, some had it written on their walls, across their bodies and when asked what should not be said, they would cry hysterically and become aggressive. Thing is, it wasn't your everyday bullet to the head, jumping off or drinking poison suicide. These were far more gruesome, like something straight out of the Saw franchise. The deaths ranged from victims gauging out their own eyes and bleeding to death, sawing off their own limbs, lighting themselves on fire and there was one incident where a man was found; what was left of him was found in a bathtub of acid. But the testimony which made me cold to the bones was from a single father who had noticed a drastic change in his ten-year-old son and decided to take him for a therapy session. When he was driving him for the third session, he noticed his son quietly staring out the window, which at that point wasn't something new, but that was until he noticed drops of blood on the boy's gray shorts; he had chewed off his tongue.
Part of me discarded it because, like I said, it seemed like something out of a horror movie, but at the same time, part of me knew better. I practically went down a rabbit hole from there, which is where I found a user who claimed to have interviewed the only known survivor of the unmentionable entity. Survivor in the sense that his suicide attempt was not fruitful. Apparently, this man had jumped in front of an oncoming train, but the miracle was that he had bucked his knees, fell face flat between the rails and, having gone skinny from the effects of the entity, the train ran right above him. The only damage was injuries on his face from the impact on the rails. His family then decided to admit him into a mental institution.
This person dropped the link to the video after describing the man's attempted suicide and, although he wasn't a believer, he decided to interview the man to humor himself and decided to go further by posting it to see how believers would react. This, however, was his last post.
I stared at the blue-highlighted text, it was taunting me to open it, I really wanted to, to hear the actual experience and the curiosity which killed the cat got a hold of me.
The video quality indicated it was from a surveillance camera, which was no surprise since he was in an isolated padded cell, and visitors were not allowed in with anything other than their clothes. The interviewer sat at an angle that the camera only captured barely half his face.
The victim sat on the soft white padded floor in white overalls.
He looked to be around in his early thirties, a sunken face with deep
Piercing clouded hazel eyes and bushy red strands of hair.
"Hello Mr. Forbes", the interviewer addressed the twitching man.
He simply stared back while frantically blinking, as if trying to stay awake.
"Okay, well I'm here to-"
"I know why you're here", Forbes cut in with a raspy voice, grimacing as though it hurt him to put his vocal cords to use (which it probably did).
His straight face slowly morphed into a grin before he began giggling for a few seconds before abruptly stopping and he added
"I'm not telling you his name" as he recoiled at himself like a stubborn child.
"Okay, well, if it's not too much pressure-"
"You can't handle it" he cut in with a maniacal look.
He leaned forward and added "You want to bet on it?"
The interviewer let out a throaty laugh as Mr. Forbes stared back expectantly.
He snapped his hands to his mouth "I couldn't", then began mumbling to himself, which I now believe is 'don't think it don't say it'
He shot his head back at the interviewer with what I could only describe as absolute fear. "He hunts you, uses your fears against you, paralyzes you with fear and makes you want to end it-but not me. I'm stronger than that, he'll never get me" a single tear fell from his eyes "I'm tired of fighting every day", his fearful expression morphing into a weary one and. "Sometimes I think of ending it, but then he'll win, or not- I can't let him win"
"You want to end it?" the interviewer questioned.
"This isn't living" he mumbled to himself, "he has striped me of everything I've got" he paused with a sniff before a crocked smile found its way on his face "He doesn't want me dead, you know. That's why I escaped the train", he added with a whisper.
"Why wouldn't he allow you die?"
"Because I'm yet to do as instructed" he replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
"And-and what is that?" his voice slightly shaking
"Let them learn my name" he stared with a distant look in his eyes,
The interviewer paused as if contemplating his next words, but Mr. Forbes spoke out "I couldn't do it. Let another person go through this" he drew in a deep breath and cast his eyes on the soft floor "his offer is tempting, I'm going to admit. It's very simple; if I want to be free, all I have to do is let someone else learn his name."
"And what is his name?"
"Are you deaf boy?" he snapped his head at the interviewer, his eyes filled with rage "there is no winning against this thing." he shot up, taking slow menacing steps towards the interviewer. "You either say his name and die or you don't share his name and experience a horror movie first hand. It's a lose-lose situation." Again, he began chuckling. His head swung backwards and at this point the interviewer began walking backwards.
The video cut at that point and continued barely a second later with Mr. Forbes in his former position but the interviewer was more distant and appeared to be on a different day as he had a change of clothes.
"You want to know his name so badly, I'll tell you."
His voice, oddly calm, his face reflecting defeat
"Here" he stretched out his hand with a folded piece of paper, "just do me a favor and only call it out when you're alone".
With that, he flung the paper at the interviewer and turned away to stare at the wall.
The video looped with a poorer quality, suggesting it was now being filmed with a cellphone.
It showed a pavement with the interviewer's foot in place.
A bench he is seated on. With one hand he unfolded the paper as
Blue ink began revealing and soon spelled out the name...
I abruptly stopped the video, my heart pounding, threatening to tear out of my rib cage. I was actually about to know the name of this entity that has driven people insane to the point of gruesomely killing themselves. Did I actually want to?
Call me stupid, but I do, I really do, despite the sinking feeling of fear growing in me.
Was this even true? What if Mr. Forbes was just a mentally deranged man and with the trend of 'don't think it don't say it', it just gave his madness a new dimension. What if all those testimonies were false (it wouldn't be the first time), but again, what if there really was something demonic to the name? I mean the person who interviewed Mr. Forbes posted the video and never logged in after that. A lot of what ifs
Mr. Forbes said the only way out was to 'let them learn my name'.
A lot of questions. But despite the fear crippling inside me right now, even as I write this blog, I will play that video and I will learn its name and I cannot go through what Mr. Forbes had to by not doing as instructed. So I am sorry dear reader, but I must free myself before it gets out of hand, so as I learn his name and inherit this curse, so will you.
...the name 'ABYZOU'