The Ledge Game



If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please reach out. You can find help at a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

USA: 18002738255 US Crisis textline: 741741 text HOME

United Kingdom: 116 123

Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860)

Others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

The Midnight Article, "LIVING AND DYING ON THE EDGE: URBAN LEGEND OR DANGEROUS SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE?" was the article featured on the first Midnight Paper to be discussed online. It was written by Fernando Iglesias Meléndez(u/MidnightPaper) and posted on r/NoSleep on Reddit.

The text of the article was as follows:

LIVING AND DYING ON THE LEDGE: URBAN LEGEND OR DANGEROUS SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE?

You may not have heard about it…but your kids have. There’s a strange building on the edge of town. It’s around fifteen stories tall, and its rooftop holds a terrifying secret.

The tenants know the story all too well. Last December, a girl (whose name this publication has chosen not to publish) attempted to take her own life by jumping off the rooftop and into the cold asphalt approximately 150 feet below.

A tragic event, but unfortunately not too uncommon. But, if you believe the word in online forums and instant messages, this was no ordinary suicide attempt. Not because of the circumstances leading up to it, but because of what happened when the girl climbed over the railing separating safe rooftop concrete and fatal plunge.

As soon as the girl lifted one foot off the edge…something strange happened. A series of images bombarded her mind. It was her father, crying in her bedroom, surrounded by his daughter’s belongings. Then it was her funeral, all her friends in suits and dresses with grief and pain wracking their faces. Then it was her own body…what was left of it. Twisted and broken and bloated and covered in stitches…yet still crammed into a dress.

The girl put her foot back on the edge. Shocked out of her fatal decision. But then, for some reason, she lifted her foot once more. The images came back, but this time they were different. It was her wearing a graduation gown. It was her in a college dorm. It was her with a boy. She hopped back over the railing and took the stairs down. The way down. The safe way down.

She told a friend, who, mockingly, told another friend. That friend told a few others. You know the rest. Someone posted it online and soon the internet ran with it. That building became a million others, in a million different towns. And for some reason, people started trying it out.

They’d go out in groups to play what soon became known as “the ledge game.” If you stood on the edge of a rooftop, on the wrong side of the railing, and stuck one foot out you could see your own future.

One such group decided to try the game out…with disastrous consequences. One of the girls in the group chose to go first. She climbed over the railing, stuck one foot out, and soon regretted it. Her friends say she started screaming, her eyes wide and looking off into the distance as if seeing something horrifying. Then those eyes turned to look at her group of friends. She tried to grab one of them, as if trying to pull them over the railing with her…to take them with her as she fell.

There was a funeral, with crying friends and a closed casket, much like the first girl saw. Instead of dissuading other teens from trying the game out, this news soon became an urban legend in its own right, growing into an indispensable part of the original tale.

But there’s something many people can’t stop thinking about. What did that girl see? Whatever it was, it was bad enough for her to ignore the visions of her own funeral and her own mangled body. Whatever it was, it was bad enough for her to try to take her own friend’s life too. Some people say it was to spare her a fate worse than death.

Maybe we’ll never know. Or maybe, like in some versions of the story, we’ll all know soon enough. Because the girl was pointing at the sky before she leapt. As if she could see something that nobody else could.

Description:

"The Ledge Game" is a Trend-Type Oddity. It revolves around a ritual of sorts, where one could play this game with the reward of seeing your own future.

In order to participate in this game, a person needs to go up to the roof of any building (no specific height is given, but it's assumed it has to be high enough to be fatal) and stick his or her foot out over the ledge.

The first recorded participant was suicidal, so her "future" vision involved her funeral and her mangled corpse. The second recorded participant of note was just playing the game initially, but witnessed something horrible that was bad enough for her to jump off the roof, and try to take a friend of hers with her. The article states that both of these participants had visions of their deaths as a result of jumping off the roof, with the first actually showing an alternate future caused by the shock of the initial vision.

As a result, we don't know if everyone witnesses visions of their death (whether by suicide or other means) or how far into the future their visions show. The article shows very condensed visions, so it's likely that it shows only relevant events in a participant's life.

NOTE: THE LEDGE GAME IS NOT REAL, PLAYING IT IN REAL LIFE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE FATAL AND WOULD PRODUCE NO VISIONS.

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please reach out. You can find help at a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

USA: 18002738255 US Crisis textline: 741741 text HOME

United Kingdom: 116 123

Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860)

Others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org