Coffins used to be built with holes in them, attached to six feet of copper tubing and a bell. The tubing would allow air for victims buried under the mistaken impression they were dead. Harold, the Oakdale gravedigger, upon hearing a bell, went to go see if it was children pretending to be spirits. Sometimes it was also the wind. This time it wasn’t either. A voice from below begged, pleaded to be unburied.
“You Sarah O’Bannon?” Yes! the voice assured.
“You were born on September 17, 1827?”
“Yes!”
“The gravestone here says you died on February 19?”
“No I’m alive, it was a mistake! Dig me up, set me free!”
“Sorry about this, ma’am,” Harold said, stepping on the bell to silence it and plugging up the copper tube with dirt. “But this is August. Whatever you is down there, you ain’t alive no more, and you ain’t comin’ up.”
CREDIT: Anonymous
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That guy was such an asshole I lold. hahaha
I like imagine when Harold tells her she cant come up, he drops that bell like a mic
I had to read the last part like -0timestoget it….I’m stupid :P
i do like this short story – read it years ago when i first started coming onto this site and it does occasionally pop into my head
This is from Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.
Harold later proceeded to high five Jesus then ride into the sky on a gnarly golden skateboard.
Harold would survive an episode of Supernatural
Does no one realize that this is plagiarized from Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark??
..
Just me?
..
…*sigh*
The short ones are usually pretty bad. It’s nice to see a glaring exception. Excellent! :)
This made me laugh so hard, oh God. You go, Harold.
This is one of the first creepypastas I read. It is still one of my favourites. Short and to the point, and with an interesting twist. It is amazing.
BUT WHO WAS SHE ?!
Everytime I read this I just imagine Morgan Freeman as Harold, which adds even more sass to it.
I may be wrong, and please don’t get angry with me if I am. But I have a theory about this story that for me would make the story sadder more than anything. Also I’m not sure if anyone else has said this.
I think there’s a possibility that Sarah was alive and not some undead zombie. The gravestone says she died in February yet it’s August, how do we not know that someone has cleverly buried her down there while she was in some kind of sleep and created a secret specialised gravestone that says February to trick Harold. Maybe in reality she’s only been down there a few hours or so, they could have orchestrated all this so carefully.
I know I’ve probably been stupid so please let me know about the likely flaws in this theory.
…Why do you sound like Fluttershy?
Why give her a working bell at all, then?
I’m sick of your shit, zombitch. Have fun eating dirt for the rest of forever. Now, off to stomp Slenderman.
thats right you fking stay down there. BITCH!!
Me: Mrs. O’Bannon…. How old were you at 1830?
O’ Bannon: Er…. 5?
Me: NOT ON MY WATCH, PRE-ALGEBRA!
He is coming the leviathen….
She could have fell into a coma on the supposed day she died.
Oooo, rejected. MHMM. *zsnap.
0)_(0
Release me Harold
I liked that Harold wasn’t a typical Pasta character. He was all “Bullshit!” and sorted it before it was a problem!
Nommy pasta! Brava!
(side note; I wish coffins still had these bells and tubes! Would definitely make me fear being buried alive less!)
Maybe she was paralyzed and couldn’t speak and she lived off bugs that crawled down the tube and drank rain water.
She was paralyzed but managed to eat bugs and drink rain water? Seems legit.
epic harold
Wow… This was made even creepier by the fact that i just so happened to read this on february 19th. Weird.
This was a great story. Creeped me out a bit. I mean, what was down there???
But there is just one thing. They only kept the bells attached to the string for a week or so. So six months down the road the bell would have been long removed.
Sorry to nit pick!
This is one of my all-time favorite pastas. It’s short and a great idea. It’s also hilarious if you imagine that maybe they’d gotten the dates mixed up on the gravestone and now she’s going to die from a misunderstanding.
Amazing pasta! Cleverly written, as well as short. Well done! I would have preferred if you left a more personal name so everyone could keep an eye out for more of your pastas, but bravo nonetheless.
Stupid Harold what did I ever do to you?!
Darn, why everyone love to think she’s a zombie rather than it’s mistake day on the gravestone? If she’s zombie, the zombie can’t talk, they can’t even think because they’re nothing but moving death body. And if she’s a spirit, she can fly out the coffin without any help.
Darn you zombie maniacs.
There’s so much more lore than just spirits and zombies, and originally zombies were said to be walking dead people that could still talk and do chores
First of all, Harold good thinkin’, second i would’ve dropped a molotov down the pipe and LIGHT THAT BITCH UP!
Buried 6 months and still alive?…
SEEMS LEGIT, LETS DIG HER UP xD
September 17… that’s MY birthday! :D Oh wait, no one cares.
I’m so smart now GIVE ME CAKE AND COOKIE OR ELSE I’LL MURDER YOU TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Aww Harold, still polite even to the Undead… such a gentleman!
We need more guys like him!
Arre Baba no I say! Thisa Harolda Rascala is betera than me!Mind ita I say Rascala!
fuck u Harold
SO IT WAS THAT CUNT THAT DID THIS TO ME.
AS ALL OF YOU CREEPYPASTA FANS WITNESSES, MY SPIRIT SHALL FIND HAROLD AND SLAUGHTER HIM!
Unfortunately Sarah, I think Harold kicked the bucket over 150 years ago :(
that really freaked me out
dont get it
Guys, Harold’s my old-man grandpa.
“Sorry, ma’am but whatever you is ain’t alive anymore.”
He’s seen this before
The part that makes me laugh is when Harold’s like, “Sorry, ma’am but whatever you is ain’t alive anymore.” I was like, derp! Zombie, why you no lie? QAQ poor zombie
@what if…
No. First of all, had she been down there eating damn bugs, she’d have rang the bell a long damn time ago. Also, she’d have needed water. Harold doesn’t appreciate ridiculous questions.
lmfao at the one person who said “she could of been in a coma” you tard, she would of starved to death anyway! do you know how the human body works at all?
Wow really short but really good….but I was under the assumption that this was occurring in modern times. making her dead for a few hundred years.
This reminds me of a movie I saw once… Cemetery Man. The dead keep coming back to life, and it’s his job to kill them before they leave the cemetary. It’s good, but weird as shit.
Anyway, great story. Way to be a badass, Harold.
Everyone is talking about how smart Harold is for not digging her up, because she’s dead and must be some kind of zombie. But what if she really isn’t dead (pretty dumb to believe in zombies). And instead buried alive by some kind of 19th century mafia. The tombstone has a fake date, because a gravedigger would still remember if there where people buried a day or a week ago. But not wich people where buried six months ago. Or as some people already said above. Harold was wrong about the date, or the date on the tombstone was a misprint. Or she survived by eating insects. If this is the case, Harold is a murderer. By leaving her to rot.
Good
BITCH YOU STAYIN DOWN THERE.
This one makes me quite sad but I
Understand………..evil spirits want
Bodies but they cant have them
Hey!Harold good work.
Chuck
There could have been a ‘misprint’ on the tombstone, i.e someone put the wrong date on.
Possible. She could have been saying ‘No, it was a mistake’, as in, ‘I didn’t die on that day, that’s the wrong date, I was buried yesterday’ or some shit but…
I like it better thinking Harold is a smart guy who politely told the zombie bitch to stay down. XD
This was an awesome story! :3
lol and you aint comin out lafed my ass of
BUT WHO WAS BELL?
Umm, this story is from the 1800s and it’s now 2010. Harold should be dead now. THE ZOMBIE MUST BE KILLED!
(too bad Harold wasn’t there to not let himself out of his coffin)
Nice to see someone who isn’t on the intellectual level of a braindead chmipanzee in one of these stories for once.
And then Harold found out someone had been messing with his calendar….
I love your comment saying and then Harold figured out someone had been messing with his calender
Mistake?
THIS IS AUGUST!
Fuck yeah! Even solid piles of unintelligent rock like me salute Harold!
I love this one. One of my favourites.
HAROLD SOUNDS BLACK YA DIG/?
penis
Harold > Chuck Norris + Bruce Lee + Jackie Chan (COMBINED!!!)
This is one of my favorites of all time. It’s a little sinister, and very funny.
That was beautiful.
Thank you guys
Harold FTW!
Harold BOOSH!
He must be related to Ashley J. Williams. Harold has style and class.
For some reason, I really like this story. The smart guy resonates with me.
Dang, I’m impressed.
Looks like I’ll be wearing Harold jammies.
clearly harold is chuck norris long lost brother
@ everyone
LMFAO
Harold, i love you
harold is god.
Favorite pasta ever!
Finally some common scence
Creepy but bad-ass. Refreshing pasta is refreshing.
I like to think that this sort of shit happens all the time to Harold. Corpses try to crawl out of their graves and Harold just whacks them on the head with his shovel, then tells them to get back in the ground. And by god those corpses get back in the ground, because you do not want to cross Harold.
Harold…
I love you <3
“A little common sense” IS a heroic act, nowadays.
What Harold should have done is exactly that, then stopped the zombie apocalypse alone using a shovel, and once that broke his bare hands.
Harold says it like its everyday business. >:3
What if it was a kid playing a prank?
Harold = full of win. c:
I would have ended it with something like… “zombie ghosts leave this place!!!” lulz
:haha Go harold. :haha
i cant believe anyone would have bought that
cmon
Harold is a god among men anyway since he also puts a final word in that is far more elequen then what i woud say:
yeah, well how about go fuck yourself.
Wow. I totally would have let her out. Until I read it for the 8th time.
Harold is one in a million.
Everytime Chuck Norris goes to sleep, he checks the closet for Harold.
If you have five dolars and Harold has five dolars, then Harold has more money than you.
XD nice brixs were shat 4 a while to much roflmao
This is pretty neato. Yay!
That’s not supposed to happen! WHY ARE THERE SMART PEOPLE FOR ONCE!?!?
Wait, scratch all that…. IGNORE ME!
Entertaining short. I humbly submit that in future versions, Harold should rip the clapper off the bell.
Or, if you really want to be dumb, have him say something like “Stop Calling! Sarah don’t live here no mo'”
lol at 56.
Man I may have to travel if that happens. No Oakdale around my area.
Love this story by the way.
@18 fuc kyeahs you did harold,septs,you could put like,tnt down the tube first
extra long cord
fucking booked it
fuckin jsut
BROOLMSHK
Oh hell yes. Brilliant story. XD
WHO WAS COFFIN?!
WHO WAS BELL?!
それを沈黙させる鐘の「残念なこれについて、夫人」、ハロルドは言った、歩み、土が付いている銅管の上で差し込むこと。 「しかしこれは8月である。 であるそこにものは何でも、これ以上生きていないし、上がっていない」。
@ Anon #45
“The tubing would allow air for victims buried under the mistaken impression they were dead.”
Even if it really was Sarah O’Bannon, clinging to her mortal body long after its demise, and she was quite innocent and pleading, the life she would return to is not one to be enjoyed.
In the event of a zombie apocalypse, everyone go to Harold the Oakdale Gravedigger. He is qualified to be Moses. He will save us all. In Harold, and God, we trust.
That is all.
I guess its true. Common sense really is so rare, it’s a fucking super power. Harold is now a superhero with his amazing abilities to think logically.
GO HAROLD!!
Harold sounds hot.
i agree with just a girl,thank god someone in a scary story has a brain cell!
PISS IN THE TUBE TO THE GRAVE THEN FART IN IT THEN SHIT INTO IT.
Chuck Norris wears Harold pjs to bed! Go Harold! It’s nice to see smart people in these stories.
stuuupid
she said she did it for the lulz
ok ok, i loved this story but the comments were fucking bril!
harold basically rocks my socks and i salute u!
at sarah o’bannon…pwned bitch! i say let her out and let chuck norris give her a swift roundhouse kick to her undead face!
ye, i enjoyed this A+ for entertainment fer suuuure!
I did it for the lulz.
i probably would have been the dumbass who let’s her out.
@ anon 1: Even if you’re in a coma, you still need AIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRR. Whatever’s down there ain’t breathing.
There’s a TUUUUBBBE! Maybe you should read the story first,hun. ;)
uh food?
U can be in a comma 4 months but u need food!! thank u Poliwhat !
This is my favourite storyy 8)
>>1
*facepalm*
DAMN RIGHT, HAROLD. No zombie bitches on YOUR watch!
whats a ‘chuck norris’ LOL
this one scarey me, i dont like zombies
Harold is an hero.
Harold, you magnificent bastard!
THAT’S how we deal with the undead in Oakdale, bitch!
lulz.
i pawned her behind.
Harold pawned you noobzor!
>_>
Jeez, Im really thinking of changing my ‘name’. -.-”
Harold has to be the ONLY intelligent person in a creepy pasta, ever.
I love this one!
hey harold, does this happen alot where you live?
Hey, the cemetery on the other side of my small town is called Oakdale…
I should look for her.
A fave, for sure. GO HAROLD!
OH NOES!!! TALKING ZOMBEHZ!!! THE ZOMPOCALYPSE IS UPON US!!! PREPARE YOUR WEAPONS AND FIND SAFE GROUND!!!!!!!!!
Harold + shovel = fuck yeah!
and is it wierd that i’m listening to living dead girl by rob zombie while reading this?
If I were Harold, I’d pour acid down the tube, just to be safe ^_^ .
The wierd thing about this, is that the person on the surface could be lying to her… We’ll never know, I guess. No bri/x/ were shat.
i wish i could be chuck norris
but the story was good too
Harold, in this day in age, an act of common sense and it is equivalent to an act of heroism.
So what’s the big fuss? A little common sense put to use was never meant to be equivalent to an act of heroism.
I just told the bitch, “i don’t believe you’re alive. Enjoy your unrest in the grave.”
Harold is the new Chuck Norris.
Harold the grave diger norris
Dayum dat guy awmost gat ded by that ghost lade but he smart liek me and saw grave!
Hey Harold, would you mind if I had your babies?
You don’t have a choice in the matter anyways.
Kudos for screwing the bitch over.
Sounds like Harold knows how to lay down the law.
Harold…
Did you ever know that your my Hero? And everything i would like to be? i can fly higher than an eagle. ‘Cause you are the wind beneath my wings
all the internetz are belong to Harold
No means no, ma’am.
harold you lunatic let me out of here!
Now, I was buried alive 1867. I still cry wishing someone would save me…. Please…. It’s cold…
hoo-rah
*gives harold a cookie* :3
I sure taught that bitch, amirite guys?
Shut up Harold. I ain’t forgotten about when you did that to me four years ago. You’re lucky I got out the way I did.
Must read pasta!
What a badass.
HAROLD ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Having people in these stories not be so stupid is really refreshing.
The way Harold tells the bitch to die brings a smile to my face.
Ah, quainte old words!
YOU GO HAROLD.
come on she was under there for like more than a year.
Four candy canes for you, Harold! You go, Harold!
i still dont get it…
It was over half a year since the girl died so she wouldv’e had to die or be some undead creature……. duh
FUCK YEAH! Harold taught that bitch a lesson.
Hey…hey…/win.
I can’t believe I didn’t get this one for two months.
@Aphia
okay, then it was a simple misunderstanding. still a good short short story.
@Daniel O’Briant:
He asked if she was born Sept. 17, 1827 to confirm that it was the one they had placed in the ground (The parents would know their daughter/husband would know his wife).
He cites the date she was buried because it’s been half a year since she was buried. She’s obviously died in that time if she were buried alive.
How could he tell if she was a spirit/zombie if she was BORN september 17, 1827 and died febuary.it makes perfect sence. she was born and they thought she died, so how is he smart? that means he’s murderer.
If it was August then she would have been buried for 6 and a half months she would’ve been dead now
It says when she was born and when she died on her gravestone….
it says she died on February 19th, and its august now. so she would’ve been buried for 6 and a half months…
She’s dead…
Holy shit, a smart guy in a scary story.
It’s a sign of the end.
These ones make me laugh really, really hard.
I have no idea why.
because it was clearly supposed to be funny.
Poor zombie ;_;
yea i know, and what about it’s bike?
That tricky fucking whore. Not on Harold’s watch, bitch.
This fucking comment made my day!
Oh fuck I lol’d, hard.
I can only imagine Burt Reynolds saying this in his voice which only makes it more hilarious
damn it i wish i could thumbs up this more than once! +10
Haaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaha that was my laugh for the day xD
I am literally LOLing after reading this comment!!
Fucking yes!
Ermahgerhd! You sir, made my fucking day!
epic.
Best comment! LOL
Even people in comas need to eat. Today we use feeding tubes. That bitch dead.
She could’ve survived on insects and prevailing moisture, right? xP I’m not so good with science. Maybe she just noticed the string for the bell after 7 months. Derp.
idiot
She could’ve been in a coma all that time… But it’s said that the only spirits that need to ask for permission to join you are evil spirits, too…
A coma without food? That’s a bit impossible.
Dude/Chick, In a coma for 100 years???
He said it’s august, so presumably it meant 7 months later. Still impossible to be in a coma that long without food/water.
It was from February to August not a 100 years
Anonymous is right, It could have been only a few months.
And, sometimes people have been known to go into “Survival Mode” and not need food or water for long periods of time without burning carbs.