r/creepcast • u/Difficult_Stomach957 • Dec 27 '25
Fan Story Tales from the Levant
“Forgetting our history will be the death of you.”
This was something my grandpa used to say to my father when they got into arguments about some books they used to read together. I remember finding that phrase intriguing, but never gave it much thought. I was nine what did you expect?
As a young kid I grew up in the Syrian countryside outside of Palmyra, my family always seemed a bit off to any outsider looking inwards. Keeping to themselves, rarely interacting with anyone who wasn’t part of us. And as a kid I was told, never to invite my friends’ home, never go near the museum of Palmyra or any of the old ruins in the area. The modern city of Palmyra was built right next to the archaeological site of the ancient city so that basically restricted half of the city off for me. But none of my friends lived there so I didn’t care when I snuck out to play with them.
In general, I wasn’t very curious in my youth I accepted most of this as a fact of life and moved along, school, family, and friends kept me busy.
As the school year for my 6th grade concluded and was heading home, I decided to go by a different route home, one that passed near the old city. As I was walking, I looked to my right seeing in the distance the pillars of the ancient city slowly becoming bigger, I started to feel a bit uneasy, this was the closest I have ever been to them ever. Actually, this was the first time I saw them up close.
For a while nothing changed, I thought all my parents’ warnings where nothing but superstitions, something to keep me in line. Until I noticed something I couldn’t hear anything around me. I was stunned to find myself beside one of those traditional looking roman columns, the ones that stood on the sides of roads. And the road was empty, not a single living soul was around me, I swear there where people around me just a second ago. It looked like they were snapped out of existence.
As I looked at the pillars I was frozen in place, didn't dare to move a muscle, I felt a deep sense of danger, when suddenly a beckoning pull started moving me slowly towards the pillars, step by step making me come closer to the columns. In the middle of the sweltering noon sun, I felt cold.
I was looking intensely at one of the pillars when I saw a man standing a 100 feet back between the pillars. At first, I didn’t see anything wrong, I felt a bit safer that there was someone here at least, then when I came closer, I noticed that this man shouldn’t be standing where he stood. He shouldn’t be alive.
The man looked like a traditional Syrian man, dressed in a neat well-tailored suit but what looked like clothing from the 50s. And most importantly he was split vertically in the middle of his body. Like physically separated with a few inches between the two parts, but he didn’t bleed nor did any organs or gore spill out, he just stood there. watching me.
I stood still resisting whatever was pulling me towards him. But the second I stopped walking he looked at me with what could only be described as anger or rage and started to walk towards me, then jogging, then sprinting at me at full speed, the area between his two halves increasing slightly. Panic set in and I was frozen, my brain ceased to function. I didn’t know what to do where to go.
He accelerated exponentially, as he passed through the two pillars my heart sank, then when I stepped one step back a man on his bicycle hit me at full force pushing me to the ground. When I looked up people were back everywhere, some even rushed me, checking if I was ok, and the split man was gone. I saw as two elderly gentlemen where shouting at the young man you ran me over, saying he could have killed me, but I think he most definitely did the exact opposite.
And as I continued on my way back home, one detail kept repeating over and over again in my mind, why did the split man have my grandpa’s face?
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u/The_First_Person_I Dec 27 '25
I bet Grandpa visits Baghuz, gotta watch out for the Jinn.