Previously: The Eternal Love Ritual.

It’s been a hot second since we’ve looked at a ritual game designed to take you to another world, so here’s an interesting one to throw into the mix: What I like to think of as the Apartment Staircase Game, or How To Go To Another World Using The Stairs Of Your Apartment Building. Functionally, it’s sort of a combination of the Elevator Game and the Staircase To Another World Game, while also being its own thing. The evolution of these kinds of ritual-based legends is fascinating, isn’t it?

There’s a lot about the Apartment Staircase Game that remains a mystery to me, including precisely where it originated and when. For what it’s worth, I’ve found it pretty much entirely in Korean sources; it also may be a little more recent of an invention than most of the other “how to go to another world” ritual games I’ve investigated here at TGIMM: The earliest version I’ve been able to locate is dated Feb. 24, 2023, which is when it was added to the “How To Get To Another World” Namu Wiki page.

[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]

Of course, the fact that this version is one that was added to an existing Namu Wiki page implies that it was likely already circulating before that point; usually, something has to be established by the time it makes it to a wiki of the sort that Namu Wiki is — that is, you typically won’t find things on these kinds of wikis that were invented on said wikis. (Wikipedia works this same way.) However, it’s also likely that the sources at which these older versions of the Apartment Staircase Game may have been located (Thredic, if I had to take a guess) are no longer accessible.

In any event, it’s also available on a handful of other Korean sources, including the Tistory site Fox Story Scary and TheWiki.kr, where it’s mostly been copied, pasted, and republished verbatim.

It’s easy to play… but as always:

Play at your own risk.

Players:

• One principal.

Requirements:

• Access to an apartment building that satisfies the following conditions:
  • It has at least 10 floors;
  • All of the apartment’s floors are reachable by stairs;
  • AND all of the apartment’s floors are also reachable by elevator.
• A timekeeping device.

Instructions:

Preparing:

1. Choose the apartment building in which you will play.
2. Choose the date on which you will play.
3. On your chosen date, go to the apartment building after 1am, but before 4am. Utilize your timekeeping device for this purpose.
4. Enter the apartment building on the first or ground floor.
5. Upon arrival, locate the stairs or stairwell.
6. When you have located the stairs, decide: Are you willing to take this journey? Truly willing? No matter what may occur?
   • If not, do not enter the stairwell. Leave the apartment building. This game is not for you.
   • If yes, enter the stairwell. It is time to begin.

Ascending:

1. When you have entered the stairwell, climb the stairs until you reach the ninth floor of the building.
2. When you reach the ninth floor, stomp one foot on the ground four times.
3. Then, continue climbing the stairs until you reach the top floor of the building.
4. Exit the stairwell on the top floor.
5. Proceed to the elevator on that floor. Do NOT turn around. Do NOT look at the stairs or stairwell.
6. Kneel before the elevator and close your eyes.
7. Keep your eyes closed for one full minute.
8. Do NOT open your eyes before the full minute is up — no matter what you might hear. No matter what you might sense. No matter what you might feel. Do NOT open your eyes.
9. After one full minute has passed, open your eyes, get to your feet, and press the elevator call button.
10. Do NOT turn around. Do NOT look at the stairs or stairwell. And if you do make the poor decision to turn around and/or look at the stairs or stairwell, do NOT make eye contact with… whatever you might see there.

Descending:

1. When the elevator arrives and the doors open, board the elevator and press the button for the ninth floor. Do NOT look behind you. Do NOT look at the stairs or stairwell.
2. When the elevator reaches the ninth floor, exit the elevator and locate the stairs or stairwell.
3. Enter the stairwell, but do NOT look up the stairs to the floor or floors above you. Look ONLY down, toward the floors below you.
4. Descend the stairs until you reach the first or ground floor. Do NOT turn around. Do NOT look behind you.
5. Exit the stairwell at the first or ground floor. Do NOT turn around. Do NOT look behind you. And ESPECIALLY do not look back up the stairs as you leave.
6. When you exit the stairwell, you will find yourself in another world — one different from the one from which you came.
7. I hope you’re happy here.
8. You made the decision to come here, after all.
9. There is no known way to return.

Additional Notes:

The building in which you play MUST satisfy ALL requirements.

Do not attempt to play in a building that is not an apartment building.

Do not attempt to play in a building that does not have at least 10 floors.

Do not attempt to play in a building which does not have stairwell access to all of its floors.

Do not attempt to play in a building which does not have elevator access to all of its floors.

If you attempt to play in a building that does not satisfy all requirements, it will, at best, simply fail. At worst — well.

Let’s just say that there are fates worse than death.

On Returning:

Once you have performed this ritual, and you have performed it successfully, there is no known way to return to your original world.

When you have arrived in your other world, you may choose to stay, or you may choose to journey on.

Be careful of journeying too much or too often, though.

It’s easy to lose your way. And should you become lost — well and truly lost—

—you might find that you are no longer able to stay tethered to any reality at all.

Eternity can be an awful long time under the best of circumstances. You wouldn’t want to spend it adrift between worlds, would you? Forever?

Forever.

Forever.

***

Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Bluesky @GhostMachine13.bsky.social, Twitter @GhostMachine13, and Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!

[Photos via Leonhard_Niederwimmer, Pixabay, faith4mer/Pixabay; H&CO/Pexels]

Source: https://theghostinmymachine.com/2026/03/02/the-most-dangerous-games-the-apartment-staircase-game/

Previously: “The Perfect Video Game.”

Note: Click here for content warnings.

This week, a tale that’s not terribly long, but that’s terribly effective all the same: “Lake Of Pumpkins,” a creepypasta that’s ultimately about memory. It does involve, as you might expect, a lake and some pumpkins — but there’s also ritual, and community, and family, and tradition. But although those might all seem like wholesome, heartwarming themes and ideas… well, this is a creepypasta. That should give you an idea of where it’s all going.

“Lake Of Pumpkins” is a pretty recent story; it was written by Creepypasta Wiki user Gloomara and uploaded in August of 2025. And although it might seem from its title that it’s more appropriate for the Halloween season, don’t be fooled; the tradition here involving the lake and the pumpkins happens every month in the world of this story — which, honestly, raises the stakes even more: Have you ever tried to find a good pumpkin in winter? Or spring? Or summer? They’re… not exactly plentiful at those times of year.

[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]

If your town has a weird tradition that everyone has to undertake when they reach a certain age…

…I’m sorry.

I enjoyed this one immensely. Find an excerpt below, and read the whole the story over at the Creepypasta Wiki.

***

Every month, on the same day, at the same time, we were told to feed a pumpkin into the great lake at the edge of our town. This must be done, no matter what, and when someone turns the age of 13, they must participate. That’s what my father told me. And that’s why we were going to the lake on my 13th birthday.

I asked him why we did this. He told me that it is because it rewards our town. Rewards our life. I asked for clarification, but he didn’t say anything further.

I normally wasn’t this inquisitive with other topics. But, as it was my turn to give a pumpkin to the lake, I didn’t want to mess it up.

Keep reading…

***

Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Bluesky @GhostMachine13.bsky.social, Twitter @GhostMachine13, and Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!

[Photo via StockSnap/Pixabay]

*Content warnings: Parental loss.

Source: https://theghostinmymachine.com/2026/03/16/creepypasta-of-the-week-lake-of-pumpkins/

Previously: Taxi #45.

Type: CO (Cursed Object).

Period/location of origin: 1980, Poland.

Appearance: Subject, a work with no known title painted by Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński, appears to be a surrealist painting created using oil paint on hardboard and sometimes referred to as “the picture that will kill you if you look at it three times.”

The painting depicts an ornate, armless dining or side chair with swirling, carved wood details and a mirror or other reflective surface as its back. Upon the chair sits a disembodied, female-presenting head with large, dark eyes, medium-length dark hair, and white skin. The head — which may be human, but also may be described as “doll-like” — appears to be perched atop a small plinth or other base covered by a white sheet or cloth and placed upon the seat of the chair.

[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]

The chair stands in a desolate landscape, sitting on the foreground of the painting on what appears to a cracked earthen surface. A shallow body of water may be seen behind it; and, in the far background, dark silhouettes of a scraggly tree line sit against a brownish sky.

The painting may be viewed here. Please note that, should you choose to view it, you do so at your own risk.

Modus operandi: Subject’s modus operandi is as its name might imply: It is said that, should a target view the image three times, target will expire shortly after the third viewing.

The manner or variety of expiration is not typically detailed.

Reports of targets expiring as a result of viewing subject three times are similarly vague.

And yet, the belief that viewing this painting three times will, in fact, result in one’s own death.

Containment: It is not entirely clear to this researcher where, precisely, subject is currently contained.

Subject may currently be in the possession of the Muzeum Historyczne w Sanoku (the Historical Museum in Sanok), which inherited several thousand of Zdzisław Beksiński’s works following the artist’s death in 2005 (see: Additional Notes). A dedicated gallery featuring some 600 of these works opened in the museum on May 19, 2012, along with a reconstruction of Beksiński’s Warsaw workshop.

Subject is also preserved in digital form in the virtual gallery dedicated to Beksiński’s work created and maintained by Piotr Dmochowski. Dmochowski owns many of Beksiński’s works himself; as such, it is also possible that subject may be in Dmochowski’s own collection.

Additional Notes: Zdzisław Beksiński was born on Feb. 24, 1929 in Sanok, Poland, where he lived out his childhood and teenage years. Although he had originally wanted to become a filmmaker and intended to apply to film school, his father urged him to study architecture instead — the reasoning being that his career prospects would almost certainly be better in the field of architecture over film. As such, Beksiński attended Kraków University of Technology as an architecture student; he graduated with his degree in 1952. He also married during this time.

He remained working in Kraków for a time following the completion of his degree program before moving to Rzeszów — again for work — for a brief period. He then returned to Sanok in 1955.

Throughout this time, Beksiński had been drawing in his free time as an artistic outlet; he also took up photography. He began to see some professional success, and soon turned to additional mediums, as well, including sculpture and painting.

His paintings largely define what he has called his “fantastic period,” which spanned from roughly 1968 to the early 1980s. These works often feature surrealistic scenes, apocalyptic landscapes, and eerie, odd, and unusual figures. He rarely titled his works, with most of them simply being filed under the catch-all moniker of “untitled.” He also typically did not detail specific meanings behind individual works.

In the summer of 1977 — in the midst of his “fantastic period” — Beksiński relocated yet again to Warsaw, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Just a handful of years following this move, he painted the “untitled” work featuring the chair and the doll-like head in the desolate landscape — the painting now sometimes called “the picture that will kill you if you look at it three times.”

In the 1990s, with the rise of home computing, he became interested in digital art and photo manipulation; these forms became his primary focus during the last years of his life.

His wife died in 1998, with his son following just a year later. Then, on Feb. 21, 2005 — just a few days shy of his 76th birthday — Beksiński was tragically murdered at his home in Warsaw. Two teenage boys were arrested, charged, and convicted of the crime; one was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the other to five.

Circa 2007, rumors regarding subject began circulating the internet in Japan, leading to its current identity as “the picture that will kill you if you look at it three times.” The earliest known reference to subject with this description located by this researcher is dated June 22, 2007; this reference occurs in a now-archived thread on 2ch (now 5ch) regarding a different allegedly cursed picture (see also: The Girl In The Drawing). This thread quickly became a depository for numerous so-called cursed images, including subject. The message posted along with a digital reproduction of subject reads simply, “Beksinski’s painting that is said to kill you if you see it three times.”

No source for this claim is cited; nor are any instances of deaths or expirations occurring as a result of viewing subject three times included.

For some time, this simple claim was passed around along with reproductions of subject, with no further details furnished.

By 2010, subject and the claims regarding it had made its way to Korean-speaking corners of the internet: The earliest draft of its entry on Namu Wiki is dated Oct. 8, 2010. By the mid-2010s, it had spread widely via social media sites such as Naver, with many sources dated 2014 and 2015 specifically featuring the claim that, should subject be viewed three times, those who have viewed it will die.

Interestingly, these claims about subject do not seem to be widely spread outside of Japan and Korea. Furthermore, these days, most coverage of subject and its supposed curse makes note of the fact that there are no documented deaths actually associated with subject, and instead use the claim as a springboard to discuss Beksiński and his work more broadly.

It is not known who, precisely, began the rumor that viewing subject three times would result in expiration.

It is not known why they began this rumor.

It is not generally believed that this rumor is true.

And yet — it persists.

Recommendation: For whatever it may be worth, this researcher has viewed subject significantly more than three times and has not yet expired; as such, it is distinctly possible that subject may viewed safely as many times as one may wish without fear of death.

However, this researcher has also only ever viewed subject as a digital reproduction.

This researcher has never viewed subject live, in person.

Further research may be required.

Resources:

Zdzisław Beksiński, “untitled” (1980). Oil on hardboard.

Dmochowski Gallery.

Dmochowski Gallery introduction to Zdzisław Beksiński. (In Polish.)

Gallery of Zdzisław Beksiński at the Muzeum Historyczne w Sanoku.

Zdzisław Beksiński biography at the Muzeum Historyczne w Sanoku.

2ch thread with earliest known reference to “three times” legend. (In Japanese.)

Namu Wiki entry for “the picture that will kill you if you look at it three times.”

Selection of Naver posts discussing “three times” legend: 1, 2, 3. (In Korean.)

“Remembering Zdzisław Beksiński” at Populist Magazine.

Archival interview footage featuring Zdzisław Beksiński at YouTube.

****

Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Bluesky @GhostMachine13.bsky.social, Twitter @GhostMachine13, and Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!

[Photos via ua_Bob_Dmyt_ua, freephotocc/Pixabay; Silar/Wikimedia Commons, available under a CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons license; screenshot/2ch]

Source: https://theghostinmymachine.com/2026/03/09/encyclopaedia-of-the-impossible-the-picture-that-will-kill-you-if-you-look-at-it-three-times/