Creepypasta stories

clickreload

've never really been one for shock sites or gross-out images. In the 90s and early 2000s when it was super trendy to direct your friends to those "find something wrong in this photo - surprise, here's an ugly face" gags... suffice to say I was less than impressed.

It's not that I had any real distaste for shock images and the like, it's just that they weren't really frightening. It was more of a cheap 'gotcha' than anything else.

So basically, that's why I never click links or open images unless I know what they are. If someone forwards me a picture with the line "FUNNY - LOOK!" I will ask them what the image is. If they won't tell me, I'll delete it.

The only time in recent history that I actually broke my rule... the ONE time I slipped... was when someone directed me to clickreload.com

I should note that I had no reason not to trust the fellow who sent me the link. We'd worked together for the same web company for a few years, and for all intents and purposes he seemed utterly humorless. He was the sort of fellow who, when I'd make a crack about the boss, would complain that he felt unconfortable and would pretend I hadn't said it.

So yeah. He sends me this link.

"Check this shit out," he wrote, "What do you think this is?"

Figuring it might be some sort of phishing site that had made a fool of my poor drone of a friend, I ramped up my security settings, got ready to handle any problems that might arise, and I took a look.

All I saw was a black background. Nothing.

What shit, exactly, was I supposed to check out? What did I think WHAT is?

Then the first image popped up. A little square with a messed-up face inside. As I considered the fact I'd just wandered right into another shock site, the second image revealed itself. A snake. Then the third, which was a fly or moth of some sort.

It wasn't all that shocking.

As I moved to close the page, a single word appeared beneath the images: "Haunted."

As I read it, a refresh symbol appeared above the images, seemingly out of order.

Now I saw what this guy was talking about. He wanted to know what I thought this was, and to be honest it looked like nothing at all.

I went to click the refresh icon, but the cursor stayed the same... an arrow. I clicked anyway, figuring nothing would happen.

Instead, the page did indeed reload. I had "clicked reload" as the website name told me, and for my efforts I recieved a series of three new images and the word "Grave."

I did this a few times. I thought perhaps that after you clicked three, five, or ten times it would stop doing the same thing and would suddenly reveal some sort of message or a link to another page.

Something like "Thanks for clicking reload, you dumb douche, now buy a clickreload.com t-shirt from my shitty CafePress store!"

But, no, it just kept displaying new images.

I was finished looking at it, now, so I went to close the page. I noticed the images now displayed seemed to be some sort of monk or druid, a frame of light with a shadowy figure in the center, and a large monstrous hand back-lit by eerie green light. Beneath, the word "Fear."

I went about my business for about an hour afterward, though I wasn't exactly keeping track. Eventually I replied to the letter, saying the site was clearly nothing important - probably some artsy-fartsy attempt at performance art.

The response I got back was a bit confusing.

"Oh..."

"Oh? Oh, WHAT? biggrin.gif" I quickly fired back, expecting more of an answer about this thing.