Urban legends are mythical stories that are passed off as truth. Sometimes they are tied to one locality, sometimes to some kind of folklore image or a certain person. Some of them sound pretty creepy.
Bloody Mary
There are legends about her in England and the USA. In the English version, this is the ghost of Queen Mary Tudor, who was nicknamed Mary the Bloody. The ruler was famous for her cruelty towards dissidents, for example, towards those who did not want to accept the Protestant faith. They were brutally executed. It was also rumored that, by order of the queen, newborn babies were abducted - apparently so that she could bathe in their blood and remain forever young.
Another version says that a woman named Mary lived in an American village. And then the villagers began to notice that over the years she does not age. She was already many years old, and on her face - not a single wrinkle. They started talking about Mary doing witchcraft. And local girls began to visit her to find out her secret from the witch. However, they never returned back, and the peasants were afraid to make a fuss, as they feared the revenge of the witch.
But the father of one of Mary's victims turned out to be a very influential person. He planned to punish the witch and managed to persuade others to go with him. When a crowd of angry peasants burst into Mary's house, as they were performing some kind of ceremony in front of a mirror, and the girl was already dead. The sorceress tried to escape, but she was caught and burned at the stake. However, before that, she managed to curse all the villagers and their descendants.
Since then, if you say the name of Bloody Mary three times in front of the mirror, then her spirit will immediately appear before you and fulfill your every desire. And on Halloween, she can show the girl the future betrothed. But if she doesn't like something, she will kill you.
The Russian version of Bloody Mary is the Queen of Spades. Calling her, you should draw a ladder with a door on the mirror and, picking up a candle, call three times: "The Queen of Spades, come!" However, this is also a rather dangerous action.
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Giant cats in Britain
Residents of different parts of the UK periodically report the sighting of huge cats, much larger than usual. Back in the 18th century, the writer William Cobbett claimed to have seen a cat "the size of a spaniel" climbing a tree with him.
There was a version that these could be exotic cats that escaped from circuses, zoos, or from private owners. However, there have been too many such cases. By the way, these animals were seen not only in England. Somehow, eyewitnesses observed a giant cat walking on the roof of an apartment building in France.
Crocodiles in the New York Sewers
They were first mentioned by Robert Daly in the book "The World Under the City". Soon after its release, there were rumors that crocodiles were living in the New York sewers. And some have allegedly seen the reptiles with their own eyes. People even called the police to report the meeting with alligators …
The most amazing thing is that this story turned out to be true. Indeed, after some time, the police found crocodiles in the sewer system of New York. True, not too large. It turned out that in the 60s of the last century, crocodiles were fashionable to keep as pets. They were kept in aquariums, and when they ceased to fit there, some owners released them. Sometimes they simply go down into the sewers, where they began to multiply. Fortunately, all of them were eventually captured.
Ghost train in the Moscow metro
They say that around midnight you can see a ghost train in the Moscow subway. He looks old-fashioned, the driver's uniform is outdated, and the people in the carriages are dressed in old-fashioned clothes. According to legend, once in 1962 a train disappeared into the subway right along with the driver and passengers. As usual in Soviet times, the newspapers did not cover this story, so as not to panic. The train, they say, fell into a space-time hole, and so now it runs through the tunnels. Sometimes it manifests itself in our time.
And if you enter the carriage of this train, you will never come back … It seems to be nonsense, but the metro workers say that sometimes at night in the subway automatic devices work, as if a train is rushing along the tracks, although in reality there is no train.
Pokongs - Reanimated Dead from Indonesia
In exotic countries of Asia, ghosts are also exotic. The creepiest are the Pokongs found in Indonesia. The Pocong looks like a decaying corpse wrapped in a white shroud. Since its arms and legs are tied with shroud ties, this zombie can only move vertically. Legends about these entities go about in Malaysia, only there they are called Hantu Bangkus, literally - "a ghost in a shroud."
The Pokongs have an intimidating appearance. Usually, it all starts with the fact that something like a white cocoon falls out on the road in front of people. Eyewitnesses say that the ghost has a pale green face, withered like a mummy's or even rotten, and instead of eyes there are two dark holes. However, he will not cause you much harm if you do not try to prevent him - for example, to stand in his way.
If the traveler is not in a car, then the Pokong may start jumping after him. And the only way to stay safe is to run away or fall to the ground and pretend to be dead.
As you can see, a legend is a legend. And in most of these stories, fiction can be intertwined with quite true facts.