User blog comment:Sykokillah/What's your favorite urban legend?/@comment-24115679-20140620210233

My favorite is probably The Girl Who Stood on a Grave. Great little metaphor for how fear works, and very applicable to my fascination with creepypasta.

Here's the full text, as it was written in the first Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book:

Some boys and girls were at a party one night. There was a graveyard down the street, and they were talking about how scary it was.

"Don't ever stand on a grave after dark," one of the boys said. "The person inside will grab you. He'll pull you under."

"That's not true," one of the girls said. "It's just a superstition."

"I'll give you a dollar if you stand on a grave," said the boy.

The boy handed her his knife. "Stick this knife in one of the graves," he said. "Then we'll know you were there."

The graveyard was filled with shadows and was as quiet as death. "There is nothing to be scared of," the girl told herself, but she was scared anyway.

She picked out a grave and stood on it. Then quickly she bent over and plunged the knife into the soil, and she started to leave. But she couldn't get away. Something was holding her back! She tried a second time to leave, but she couldn't move. She was filled with terror.

"Something has got me!" she screamed, and she fell to the ground.

When she didn't come back, the others went to look for her. They found her body sprawled across the grave. Without realizing it, she had plunged the knife through her skirt and had pinned it to the ground. It was only the knife that held her. She had died of fright.