Spooky season has passed and though you may be putting up your winter decorations in your tacky sweater while sipping hot cocoa, that doesn’t mean you’re safe from ghost stories—especially real ones. Enter Twitter’s ongoing mystery: Dear David.
Adam Ellis, an author and illustrator, posted on Twitter on August 7, 2017, claiming his apartment was being haunted by the ghost of a dead child. According to the tweets, Ellis suffers from sleep paralysis and saw a child with a misshapen head sitting in a green rocking chair at the foot of his bed.
As if this wasn’t already creepy enough, soon after, he had another dream where a woman explained the child he saw a few nights prior. According to Ellis’ tweet, the child’s name is Dear David and he will answer two questions of your choice, “But never try to ask him a third question, or he’ll kill you.”
Ellis met the child again in his dreams, and, well, this happened…
After this traumatic event, Ellis tweeted that nothing happened for a few weeks. He moved into a larger recently-vacant apartment above his, and slowly forgot about Dear David.
Then weird things started to happen, and he documented it all on Twitter.
The story of Dear David became viral, with thousands of favorites, shares and comments on each of his many tweets.
What’s unique about Ellis’ story, however, is the evidence he presents. Though there has been some speculation as to whether this is a scam to gain more followers, some of the details would be hard (and almost impossible) to fake. For instance, Ellis shows a video of him taking a picture of the hallway with his Polaroid camera to show evidence that the pictures are coming out black. In another instance, he records his cats acting out in strange ways, meaning he would have to train them in order to execute this single detail of the story.
He posts sketches to easily explain his claims. The great lengths he goes to makes this story seem much more real. Carrying on a Twitter hoax for months on end with tons of unexpected twists and turns would prove difficult to manage with a full-time job. The videos, photos, and sound bites would be extremely difficult to create. If Ellis is faking this story, then he deserves a medal for the amount of effort put into a single hoax.
However, as with just about every ghost story, it’s not possible to confirm or deny what is real and what is fake. The judgment is up to you. Whether you believe in Ellis’ story or not, one thing is still true: Dear David is the Twitter story that is as creepy as it is intriguing.
Adam Ellis’ latest tweet was on November 28, 2017, and the story is certainly not over yet. Follow Adam Ellis on Twitter to stay updated with the Dear David mystery.
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Thumbnail image courtesy of Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash.