That’s what some people believe the case is with the elusive Cicada 3301 online puzzle, which, if history repeats itself, will make a return within days.  

Tekk Nolagi, a teenager from the San Francisco Bay Area who asked not to be identified by his real name, says he was sitting in a high school robotics lab in 2012 with his friends when the photo first appeared on the image message board 4chan.org.

“It was posted on the paranormal activity thread or something like that.” Tekk told CBS News over the phone. “A bunch of people said, ‘wow, that’s creepy’ and didn’t say anything else.”

It was an image of white text against a black background that said:

“Hello. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test. There is a message hidden in this image. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few that will make it all the way through. Good luck. 3301.”