Blind Eyes

I love reading urban legends, but mainly for a cheap laugh at how some people think that they are real. I've read them all from Bloody Mary to the Slender Man, all of them are creepy and fun to read, and several of which have been spawned into films and fanfictions. My name is Kevin Christopher. I'm a sophomore in high school, so you can understand how I got into the whole urban legend obsession. My friends introduced me to several legends that I have never heard of before and this peaked my interest to the point where I began writing my own stories centered on urban legends. But despite the fact that I write stories, this is no story. This is true.

I first heard about the website when I was in my third period computer class. When I was teaching myself how to program a simple batch game, and this was in my free time after I completed the current assignment, I overheard my friend, Walter Matheson, talking to his girlfriend, Maria Alejandra, about an urban legend which was only heard of in Spain. The story was centered around a haunted or cursed website. I didn't get a lot out of their conversation because they were speaking Spanish. I did take Spanish class, but only for one year, so I couldn't understand a lot of it. I decided that it would be best to ask Walter about it during lunch. As it turned out, he wanted to tell me about it, and when he brought up the story, we couldn't stop talking about it.

“Have you heard about that urban legend from Spain?” he asked me.

“Is it that one you and Maria were talking about in 3rd period?” I asked, “The one about that website?”

“Yeah,” he said, “Did you hear the whole thing?”

“I heard it, but I didn't understand it,” I said, “I only took Spanish for a year.”

“Okay,” he said, “Well, she told me that this legend started about 30 years ago, during the 80's or something when the internet first came around. The story goes that a woman was murdered around the time the internet was starting to become popular, that she was stabbed in the eyes and the murderer hid her body. Then out of nowhere, this website popped up, called blindmaiden.com, and the site is supposed to show disturbing images of screaming children with gouged out eyes and immediately afterward, there is supposed to be a text which says something about the Blind Maiden wanting to show you true horror and that the person at the computer will need to use all five of their senses to experience it, and below that are two buttons, accept and decline.”

“What happens if they accept the offer?” I asked.

“Then the screen will show footage of someone walking up to their house and into the room where the computer is in,” he went on, “but the truth is that what you're seeing is what the Blind Maiden's eyes see. Even though she is blind, her eyes still see, and what you're seeing on the screen is through her eyes. She will then come up behind the person at the computer, and if they look back, they won't see anything, but she'll grab them, and they vanish off the face of the earth leaving behind an image of them screaming with their eyes gouged out etched on the computer screen.”

The mere thought of it sent a chill down my spine. “And what happens if they decline?” I asked.

“Nothing happens,” said Walter, “They live to tell about it and the website goes down after they hit the button.”

“Forever?” I asked.

“Not forever,” he said, “The website will only go down for the person who used the computer for until the next time they try to search it, which shouldn't be until the next month.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“The legend says that anyone who tries to get on this website at any time is rejected,” said Walter, “and that the only way to get on this website is if you adhere to five conditions. These conditions are to be completely alone in whatever location you are in, to have all of the lights off in your location, to have no religious objects around you, to log on at precisely midnight, and to log on during the new moon. If these conditions are adhered to, you will be granted access to the website.”

“Who would be dumb enough to believe that?” I laughed.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">“Yeah, who would?” Walter agreed.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">But our question was answered the next day. The day we were talking about the Blind Maiden site happened to be the night of the new moon, and one of our friends didn't show up to school the following day. We thought it was just him having a sick day, but then the cops showed up to the school and told our principal that he had gone missing. We looked at each other in shock. We snuck into his house later that day, and we found that on the last entry of his internet browser history, he had gone onto a page the previous night which was only labeled “404 – Page Could Not Be Found”. This disturbed us immensely, but then again, we thought it could just be coincidental.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">Two weeks later, our thoughts of his disappearance being a coincidence were dropped because he didn't show up at all and we were becoming worried. Together, Walter and I continued researching and asking questions about this website, but no one could give us any information, not even some of the other Spanish students. Many of them have heard about his legend, but decided not to talk about it, while the others have never even paid attention to us, thinking that we were crazy. Another two weeks passed, and the police were still on the case of looking for our friend, but nothing was helping and the next new moon was on its way. If anyone else succumbed to the spreading rumors, then they would be the next to disappear if they succeeded in logging on to the Blind Maiden site.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">In order to understand this more, Walter went to ask Maria more about it. We told her of our suspicions about our friend disappearing after visiting a site which labeled 404, and she told us that each time someone visits the site the site will immediately lock out after one use and remain locked until the next new moon.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">The following night, the night of the new moon, I turned on my computer and went online. It was 11:30, so I passed the time watching videos on my external hard drive. As soon as the clock hit midnight, I typed into the hotbox blindmaiden.com. The site was real. It showed the images of screaming children with their eyes gouged out, and one of the images was of our friend. As soon as the images stopped scrolling, the text appeared. It read:

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">This website will take you to a whole new level of horror.

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">A horror that will use all five of your senses.

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">You must be very careful not to click on anything

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">by accident. You will be faced with a real experience

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">of absolute horror.

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">Click the accept button to engage

<p style="text-align: CENTER; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">actively in the experience.


 * {| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" frame="VSIDES" width="100%"

<p style="text-align: CENTER;">ACCEPT <p align="CENTER"> <p style="text-align: CENTER;">DECLINE <p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">After seeing what I did, I immediately hit decline and the website switched to a 404 screen. I didn't want to go testing a rumor if it was real or not. The mere existence of the site was proof enough for me.
 * - valign="TOP"
 * width="38%"|
 * width="24%"|
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<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">The following morning, I found that Walter was in a deep state of worry. Maria had gone missing. Rushing over to her home, we found her cell phone and the first thing we saw when Walter unlocked it was a 404 screen. I knew that this was the work of the Blind Maiden site, but we couldn't find out any time soon because the site would stay down for another month.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">Starting the following day, Walter wouldn't speak. My guess was that the loss of his girlfriend was a traumatic experience, especially if she was dragged away from this world. If he was that traumatized, he might have needed to stay home, but he didn't. I think that he needed support from me and his other friends. He was still social in the manner of writing everything he wanted to say, but it seemed rather depressing after a while.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">When the month had passed, Walter sent me a message saying that he was going after Maria. I knew what he meant immediately: he was going to log onto the Blind Maiden site. I told him not to, but he said that he wanted to be with Maria. I didn't want Walter to do this, but he told me that if this was the real deal, that we were dealing with a ghost, he would place video cameras throughout his house to try to get a glimpse of it. He made a gesture which looked like he was saying “see ya later, I hope” and left when the bell rang.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">I rushed home and did my homework immediately, completing it within the hour, and then I turned on my internet browser. I logged onto my email and, after finding Walter online, told him once again not to do this, but he wouldn't respond. I don't know if he was paying any attention or not, or if he was just ignoring my message. Hours passed by, and I kept telling him not to log onto that website, but still no response.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">As soon as the clock hit 11:59, Walter began feeding me live footage of his house. He wanted me to see if this was real. I saw him log onto the Blind Maiden site, and the first photo shown was Maria screaming with her eyes gouged out. When all of the other photos cycled through, the text appeared and I was terrified to see Walter press the “Accept” button. Immediately, one of the camera feeds distorted slightly and something appeared on the screen. It was a dark shadowy figure in the shape of a woman. I saw it skulking across his front yard and into his house, across his living room, and towards his bedroom. When his bedroom door opened, I saw the terrified look on his face when the shadow came up behind him. He turned around, but apparently he didn't see anything because he took no notice of the shadow, which then raised its arms and grabbed his face. I watched helplessly as he screamed in terror, clutching his eyes, and was slowly absorbed into the shadow figure.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal">Once he had completely vanished, the figure stood completely still, then slowly turned around towards the camera. It slowly drew closer and closer to the camera and when it came up to the lens, I heard it say in a Spanish accent, “''Your friend is waiting for you. Come and join him.'' ” I immediately shut off the camera feed and smacked the power button on my computer. As soon as I was about to leave the room, the computer turned itself back on and opened to the Blind Maiden site. It showed the cycle of pictures and then came to the text. I jumped out of my bed and hit “Decline”, but nothing happened. I tried to close my web browser, but nothing happened. I tried to shut off my computer and cut the power, but it was like everything was deadlocked. The Blind Maiden was waiting for me to press “Accept”, and she wouldn't let me do anything else. Hoping it would work, I rushed to my bedroom and grabbed the rosary my grandmother gave me. Immediately, there was a loud screech, as though someone was screaming, and my computer shut itself off. After a few minutes, I decided it was safe to go to sleep. If the website ever tried to pull me back in, I kept religious items next to me at all times wherever I went.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">Walter and Maria were gone forever, but I managed to pull myself together. I don't know what happened to them, or where they were taken to, but one thing I do know for sure is that the Blind Maiden is still waiting for me. Ever since that night, I keep getting emails from the website itself. All of them are sent to me at exactly midnight every new moon, and all of them have the same nine words directed towards me, “We're waiting for you. Stop hiding and join us.”