Sombra Massacre

It was a lazy evening in November 2001. My parents and little sister had done out for the night, trusting me with the house. We live in a quiet neighborhood, so my job really was to stay awake until they returned home.

I was on the couch, a bowl of Cheetos in front of me, and the television on. I was watching MTV, one of my favorite channels at the time. I especially liked it when they played a G-Bite.

After some generic pop song ended, the television was acting strange. The screen went black, and then flashed white without warning. Then static, followed by a really bad recording of some goth-looking band. The corner of the screen said the band was called Sombra Massacre, and the song title was “Reap”. This band was obviously trying too hard.

The band consisted of four members: a guy around my age as the front man, an older gentleman playing guitar, a girl on bass, and another boy on the drums. The music, itself, was horrible. Everything was disoriented, and the instruments weren’t even in tempo with each other. But for some reason, I watched. The visuals were bad, too. It looked like it was cheaply filmed, and weird, hypnotic visuals appear sometimes.

After then song ended, there was more static. Then the commercials began to play.

That was…strange.

I decided to look up Sombra Massacre online, and the only thing I could find was an internet forum. I clicked on it, and found people talking about the band.

ChiliPepper465: Reap played again.

Unicorns4Ever33: it must be the single theyre trying to promote.

TeePot7: I thought Natans was their big single

ChiliPepper465: You mean the song that plays in reverse? Why would that be their hit?

TeePot7: It’s a creative idea Unicorns4Ever33: so was the black cauldron and we r the only 1s who like it

I had to join in the conversation. These people knew more about the band than I did. I had so many questions buzzing in my head.

192000: you guys know about Sombra Massacre?

TeePot7: Yeah, this is what the forum is for. why?

192000: this was the only site that popped up when I looked up the band

Unicorns4Ever33: the band doesnt like the internet TeePot7: so which song did you see?

192000: Reap. It was a really bad song

ChiliPepper465: I like that song.

TeePot7: Hail the Red Horns is better

192000: I dont know that song, I only saw Reep

Unicorns4Ever33: ahh a newbie

ChiliPepper465: The only thing you need to know about us is that TeePot has the hots for Adria.

192000: Who’s Adria?

TeePot7: The bassist of the band, and I do not!

Unicorns4Ever33: the whole band is actually a whole family

TeePot7: Yeah. The Pangrani family. The father is the guitarist, and his kids play the rest of the instruments.

ChiliPepper465: Their dad is named Damien, Adria is the bassist, Salem’s the singer, and Onyx is the drummer.

What an odd surname.

192000: I might come by later, I just wanted information on the band.

Unicorns4Ever33: stop by any time. we have other users active in the morning

I was on the couch, trying to process the information that was given to me. I switched the TV to the news, watching as people were still discussing terrorists.

My parents returned home and told me my sister was sleeping over at her friend’s house. I nodded, and decided to head up to bed.

All night, visions of the music video were flooding my dreams. The weird visuals that played in the background were the first to appear, followed by each member of the band, their pale skin, black hair, and eyeliner under each eye. I also remembered Adria’s black lipstick, only in the dream, the mouth didn’t even resemble lips. All of a sudden, their skins turned red, and black feathers grew from their arms. And the screaming. They were all screaming, like they were being killed or something.

I woke up in a cold sweat. I turned to my alarm clock. It was 8:40 AM. I needed more information, and not just from strangers online.

I dressed in my Gorillaz Geep shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and some winter boots I found under the bed. I also remembered to grab my hooded jacket.

There were many record stores in my area, and a few of them were walking distance. The first one I went to had only just opened. The cashier smiled, and said, “eyy, nice shirt you got there!”

“Thanks. I made it myself.”

“The ol’ iron the picture trick?” the cashier winked at me. “Yeah, I’ve been guilty of that, myself.”

I smiled, then started to look around.

“Anything I can help you with today?”

I looked at the cashier, then responded with, “I’m looking for this weird metal band.”

“Ain’t they all weird?”

“Yes, but this one was…strange. They’re called Sombra Massacre?”

The cashier gave me a confused look. “I’d remember a band with that name.” he decided to look online to see if they even existed.

“I can’t find anything on this band.”

I was confused. He couldn’t find the forum, either?

“Are you sure?”

The cashier invited me to look at the screen. There was the forum, the only site available.

I pointed to the forum, “there’s a site right here.”

The cashier gave me a confused look. “No there ain’t.”

This was even stranger than the music video.

I thanked the cashier, and made my way to the next store. Every store I’ve been to had the same thing happen. The person working at the store would tell me the band didn’t exist, and even look it up online. I still see the forum that pops up on the screen, but each clerk denied my claim.

What happened today made me cautious about the forum. I decided to look up Pangrani. A picture of a newspaper story from 1934 popped up. I decided to look at the paper. Someone had uploaded it on what appeared to be a forum students go to for essay prompts. The poster captioned the article with, “Here’s a cold case that’s still being investigated. Perfect for criminal study students.” The article detailed a murder that has never been solved. It detailed the wounds on each victim, and how the house had been burnt as well. As soon as I reached the end of the article, my skin got extremely cold.

“The victims have been identified as Damien Pangrani and his children; Adria, Onyx, and Salem Pangrani.”

This story was originally posted by Trollpasta admin Mai sentry on November 3rd, 2017