The Infinite Tapes

==Disclaimer==
This is the first real creepypasta I have ever made in my career of making horror stories. Enjoy my first attempt at trying to match the style from the classic old days of Creepypastas!
==Tape 1 (June 28th, 1998)==
Hi, call me Alex. I’m quite an average man who likes to collect pretty mysterious memorabilia, including VHS tapes. Nuff’ said. I’m gonna tell you a story of the time I nearly went into another world, all thanks to the curiosity of me finding four mysterious VHS tapes. 
So one day, I went to my local thrift shop to get a VHS tape for a pretty good price. However, I overlooked the VHS tape thinking it was a regular movie on VHS or something. I went back home to pop the VHS into my VCR. I was expecting something to play on the screen of my TV but there was almost nothing.
All that the VHS played at first was a black screen for some period of time, I don’t how long to be exact. During the time the black screen was on, there were eerie sounds that were jumbled in such a way that it made me feel legitimately unnerved.Then, a pair of very simple white eyes popped up on the screen. A white phrase very slowly faded along from the black screen saying: “In the vast realm of the Infinite, Nothing can escape” before both the eyes and the phrase disappeared with the black background.
I ejected the VHS tape out of the VCR and, well I just put it down. Then I noticed that there was text on the front of the VHS tape. I read the front of the VHS tape carefully. The front of the VHS had the phrase: “Turn around” written a little bit too neatly in black marker. Without any hesitation, I immediately turned around, and expected to see some horrifying monster, when in reality, I saw nothing. Was the VHS tape trying to trick me? I sighed before putting the VHS tape down on the TV stand before I slouched down on my ragged tan couch, trying to forget about the unsettling tape I had just witnessed.
Later that day, I returned to the thrift store again, and returned the VHS tape. The store manager was confused, since the day before, he told me that the VHS tape was just fine. He asked me two questions in a rather fierce tone suddenly:
”Why did you return the VHS tape? Was it not working or was it not up to our standards?”
I answered both of them in a calm and collected manner, trying to not make a big deal out of the situation.
”I returned the VHS tape because I saw a close encounter with the Infinite. And not in a numerical sense. I saw two eyes on the VHS tape telling me that nothing escapes the Infinite, which is true because the Infinite could be… well I don’t know for certain. Yes your VHS tapes were up to your standards, but maybe, the VHS tape I got was from somewhere else…”
The managers fierce expression slowly drifted away. He looked like he understood what I was saying. His face contorted a little bit into a face of realization and fear, with his pupils slightly shrinking in the process. He managed to utter out a couple words softly.
”Y-you… may h-have seen something w-w-we can’t s-see”
I jerked my hand into my wallet to pay for the refund of the VHS tape. The manager uttered out “Thank you” in the same soft tone he had. I exited the thrift store feeling a little worried about what the future could hold for me finding these VHS tapes.
Once I got back home, I attempted to researched about the tape on Yahoo.com, but to no avail I could not find any trace of the VHS tape I had watched existing. I checked nearly every corner of the basic web from checking out online thrift stores to the sketchy websites claiming they had “Free VHS tapes” but still found nothing. I decided to call it a day and read a newspaper about what was on the news.
==Tape 2 (July 4th, 1998)==
About a week later, I went to my local Blockbusters down a few miles from my town instead of the thrift store, mainly because I didn’t wanna deal with the manager again. Once I got to the Blockbusters, I went into the Mystery aisle of the store and saw that all the VHS tapes in that specific aisle were poorly stocked. Only a handful of VHS tapes were either upright on its shorter side or face down in every column. I decided to go further in the aisle and saw that one specific tape was upright on it’s longer side. I grabbed the VHS tape and saw that it had nothing on the front nor back. I got the VHS tape and bought it for a cheaper price than I had at the thrift store. The reason being that there was a July 4th sale in which every VHS tape was 40% off.
When I returned back home, I inspected the VHS tape further, like I had with the previous tape. I checked the front and it had writing. The writing was small, since the front sticker of the VHS was pretty small. I was still able to make out what it said though. It was even written in the same black marker as before. The writing said:
”So you wonder how you keep on finding these tapes? They all connect to something within the Infinite, which you will know soon, my friend”
My mind started to race with a million questions. At this point, I was very sure that my mind wasn’t playing any games. I swore that when I checked it last there was no writing on the front nor back, but now there was writing on the front?
Was the VHS tape I had gotten possessed?
A few minutes later, I popped the VHS tape into my VCR like I had done yesterday. Again, it began with a black screen. All of a sudden, a loud thunder clap could be heard from the VHS. The white text returned, saying “So, your back? Well, I got something to tell you…” I was already nervous, as my legs started feeling weaker from only about 2 minutes of me standing like this. 
Suddenly, more white text appeared saying “I’m watching you, but you can’t see ME” The “ME” was larger than the other white text, and was also underlined with an animation of a white line slowly moving below the word. 
“I’m sorry, what?” I said as the message was still on the TV. on the continued to watch the TV, as the message stayed on the TV for a brief period of time before slowly fading away into the darkness of the black screen. I removed the VHS tape from the VCR and stood there, not even putting the VHS on the TV stand this time. 
I decided to not return the second VHS tape that day, since I wanted to keep it as a spooky prank to play on my kids in the future. I was a kind figure after all, and I usually liked to prank my neighbors with sending them edits of episodes and calling them “lost episodes” Perhaps I would keep the VHS tape and add it onto my memorabilia collection. 
The VHS tape and the Infinite aside, that night I got together with my friends and we watched the fireworks. It helped my mind forget about those two VHS tapes, but my mind wondered if there were more VHS tapes that were connected to the Infinite. 
== Tape 3 (July 18th, 1998) ==
Two weeks later, I decided to go VHS hunting again, even though the July 4th discount was now invalid. I went to another thrift store and saw a green VHS tape, which was quite an odd color for a VHS tape. I bought the VHS with the spare change I had gotten from working at a job I had a few days prior.
Once I bought the VHS tape, I drove back home and went to the kitchen to make myself some lunch. The VHS tape I had bought was in a white bag on the counter of the kitchen. After I had lunch, I got a phone call on my Nokia phone from an unknown person. I decided to pick up the phone and answer the person, but they didn’t answer. I thought it was normal, it was probably another one of those scam calls I got all the time. So I ended the call, got the VHS tape from the bag, and then did the same thing I had done to the other two tapes, put the VHS tape into the VCR.
The VHS tape began with a loud thunderIng sound before a message appeared saying “In the Infinite, you will join the cult” with the first letters of those words being incorrectly capitalized. Then, the message repeated below the first “join the cult”, and continue to slide down this way until it was below the border of the bottom of the screen. As that was happening, I could hear distinct murmurs of various voices chiming together. They sounded like they were saying some sort of ritual or incantation, but the mumurs were so incoherent that I couldn’t tell which one they were doing.
I found it quite disturbing how it continuously repeated the same phrase downward. I would not want to join a cult that I was forced to join under my own free will. I wanted to eject the VHS tape out of the VCR like a little kid, but I controlled my impulses and let the VHS tape continue to play. After all, I did fully watch every VHS I have ever gotten in my lifetime.
After the cult message, the message slowly disappeared, and then an interesting thing happened. The screen faded in to show a poorly made crayon drawing of two kids, a boy and a girl, next to a tall and eerie black figure. There was no blood, no shockers, just an eerie black figure. In the next frame, it showed another drawing, but more backwards than the last. Both kids were crying, with badly made tears drawn with a sky blue crayon. Behind them, more black eerie figures showed. The background was now of dark grey instead of white from before. Then the drawing disappeared as the VHS tape ended. Since I didn’t have a notebook at the time, I couldn’t draw down what I have seen. 
After the VHS tape ended, I ejected the VHS tape from the VCR feeling uncertain and afraid. My mind was racing with many thoughts as of what to do with the VHS tape, but eventually my mind chose to have the VHS tape mailed away to a foreign city. I put the VHS tape in an envelope, wrote my personal information on the front, then mailed it to a city in Montana where one of my oldest friends once lived. 
After that, for the rest of the day, I tried to do stuff to keep my mind occupied with thinking about stuff other than those VHS tapes. But whatever I did, my mind still kept on thinking about them. After I realized that I couldn’t stop my brain to think about the VHS tapes, I called one of my friends to tell them about the situation, They understood the situation and told me that I should go outside and breathe deeply. I did as I had asked, and before I stopped thinking about the VHS tapes for the day, I thought of one last question that would be at the back of my head until a mere two weeks later. 
Was there a fourth, and maybe final VHS tape that mentioned the Infinite? 
== The Final Tape (August 1st, 1998) ==
Two more weeks had passed, I had watched three VHS tapes that talked about the Infinite, each one more and more disturbing than the last. What could the last VHS keep in store for me? I went outside to enjoy the afternoon summer breeze, then I went onto an online forum and chatted with one of my best friends, who was also a vivid VHS collector. My username was GhostHunter311 while my friends was Hitchhiker192.
GhostHunter311: Hey, how has your day been?
Hitchhiker192: My day has been great! What about yours?
GhostHunter311: It’s been fine,
Hitchhiker192: Have you gotten any VHS tapes from them thrift stores?
GhostHunter311: Yah, they’ve been rather creepy though.
Hitchhiker192: As if. Are they really creepy though?
GhostHunter311: Yeah, they talked about the Infinite.
Hitchhiker192: The Infinite.… what’s that?
GhostHunter311: It’s another world I think, the tapes are convincing me to join them in it.
Hitchhiker192: Y-you may want to destroy them…
GhostHunter311: I will destroy them, not! I wanna find the last tape.
Hitchhiker192: Are you sure?
GhostHunter311: I’m sure. It’s like something telling me that I should find it. Talk to you later pal.
Hitchhiker192: Okay, bye…
I traversed through multiple thrift stores that day, trying to find the last tape, but no matter how far I went, no matter how close I was, I never got it. Disappointed, I drove back home with my head down for half the ride. When I went back home, I slouched down on my couch and daydreamed about the three VHS tapes that I had watched. I repeated the thought I had in my mind a month prior: “Were those VHS tapes I had gotten possessed?”
Then, out of the blue, I heard the doorbell ring. I got off the couch and opened the door, and nobody was there. Did somebody Ding Dong Ditch me? I thought before looking down and seeing a black and unlabeled VHS tape. I slowly picked it up from the doorstep and walked back to the living room. I gestured my hand to out the VHS tape into the VCR, but I hesitated for a second. I wondered about what would happen if I put the tape into the VCR. Would something bad happen?
Right after I put the VHS tape into the VCR, the VHS instantly played malicious music that was so gut-wrenching that it made by ears ring. On the screen it said “Join us in an impenetrable harmony!” I then saw an entity on the bottom that appeared to be what a member of the Infinite looked like. They had slender, long arms with suction cup like ends to them, and there legs were turned into standing daggers. They’re head was the same as a humans, but had a long, hanging mouth.
I instantly ejected the VHS tape from my VCR and drove back to one of the thrift stores. In a hurry, I rushed through into the check-out and gestured my hand for the cashier to come toward me. The cashier looked at me a little confused and came towards me.
“C-could you please ship this VHS tape to somewhere that it can never be found? PLEASE?!” I said in a fearful and demanding tone.
”W-why are so scared? Saw something that wasn’t goo-“ The cashier before being cut off by me.
”JUST TAKE THE DAMN’D VHS TAPE AND SHIP IT SOMEWHERE!!” I yelled loudly, causing everyone who was at the thrift store to turn their head towards me. After I screamed, I slammed the VHS tape down on the counter, and slowing down at the end to not break the VHS tape.
”Geesh, alright, I’ll take the VHS you have… just don’t burst out in our thrift store again” The cashier said annoyed, as he swiped the VHS tape from the counter and placed it in a collection of returned VHS tapes.
After I caused an unnecessary and embarrassing moment in a thrift store, I slowly walked back to my car, and went in the front seat. My head turned to the sunset that was before me. The sky was orange, red and purple, but instead of enjoying the beauty of that sunset, my mind was constantly thinking of the four VHS tapes that I have watched. The experiences of watching them left me with many more questions than it did with answers. Before I drove out of the thrift store, I thought of one last question before I moved on with my evening:
What was the Infinite, and will it ever be known by anybody else other than me?
Category:VHS