and then she turned her head

Hey everyone,

I’m letting you all know that I will not be publishing translations anymore. I’ll leave this blog up for any who might be interested in Japanese horror stories.

Thank you all for your support.

Title: The Abandoned Hospital Type: Personal Experience

The following is what my upperclassman personally experienced. It happened around four to five years ago when he and his friend went to explore an abandoned hospital. I’ll call him “A” and his friend “K”. They thought about going there for a while but since K was moving away the following day they wanted to do something memorable. Nothing out of the ordinary happened there but it still managed to frighten them. Just as they were about to go home, A thought it would be a god idea to go back and find something they could remember that day by. They each found a syringe for themselves and left.

Two weeks had passed when A’s phone rang out of the blue. The caller said, “I’m an employee at such and such hospital. Would you mind bringing back that syringe you borrowed?” When A heard that, he froze. The person on the other end claimed to be from the hospital A and K visited two weeks earlier. He immediately said that he’d go back and return it, but they said there was no need. When A asked why, they said in a low voice, “I’m in front of your apartment complex.” The instant A grabbed the syringe, his phone rang a second time. “There’s no need to leave your house. I’m right behind you.” Too frightened to turn his head, he threw the syringe out of his window. When he looked outside he saw a man standing below. He was wearing long white robs that were covered in blood. Half of his face was gone. He plucked the syringe from up off of the ground, looked up at A and smiled wide. The next second he was gone.

A has since sworn never to set foot in another abandoned building.

Title: The Peephole Type: Urban legend

This is a fairly well-known story nowadays so I’m probably getting to it a little late. Of the countless horror stories I’ve heard, though, this is my favorite. Once I discovered the hidden meaning I felt a shiver run up my spine. I’ll try to keep my writing as simple as possible.

There were two high school girls who were on their way home from school. I’ll call them A and B. While they were walking they noticed that the girl in front of them had the physique of a model. The clothes she was wearing were so stylish that she looked like she stepped right out of a fashion magazine. They couldn’t see her face because they were behind her. They figured she couldn’t be anything but a very beautiful woman so they decided to follow her. After a while they made it far into a residential area they were unfamiliar with. The woman entered a dilapidated house on the corner of the street. They waited for a bit but it was apparent that she wouldn’t be coming back out. It would be boring if they just went home without having seen her face. B made a proposal: “Hey, what if we try ringing the doorbell?” A stone wall surrounded the house, and an intercom was installed on the right-hand side of the gateway. The front door rested at the top of a tall set of stone steps. B was going to ring the doorbell on the intercom and hide behind the wall. Hopefully the woman would try looking out the front door to see who was there.

She rang the doorbell. Nobody answered. She rang it again. Still, nobody answered. Just as they were about to give up, A remembered something. “Maybe I can see inside if I try looking through the peephole.” She climbed the steps and neared the front door without a sound. She leaned toward it until her eye was less than an inch away. But when she looked inside she could only see red. That was all. It was impossible to see anything while looking in from outside after al. They went home.

The next day a asked one of her acquaintances about the house. She knew he lived in the same general area. I’ll call him C. “Did you know that a very beautiful lady happens to live near you?” A asked. She described the area around where the woman lived. “Oh, you mean that old house with a stone wall? That place has been abandoned for years.” C said. “What? That doesn’t make any sense! If it’s abandoned then who did we see?” “You know, I wonder if it was a ghost. A woman was murdered there a couple of years ago.” He lowered his voice and kept talking. A couple lived there a while ago. However, as the days passed their relationship got worse and worse, until one day they had a bitter fight and the man killed his girlfriend in a fit of rage. “He stabbed her parents with an ice-pick. It was a slaughter. He died mysteriously sometime after. Everyone who lived in that neighborhood claimed they saw the ghost of the woman who was murdered, but nobody dared look into her eyes. They were blood red and it’s said that if you look into them she’ll kill you the same way she was murdered.” A wondered if she and her friend saw that same ghost. “That’s pretty creepy.” She said in wonder when the story ended. The bell rang and everybody went back to their desks.

Just then she realized something:

she was going to die.

Title: The Old Message Board Type: Humans can be scary too

I was doing my end of the year cleaning when I came across a couple of old documents. I gathered them up and flipped through them out of nostalgia. One was written five years ago when I was the moderator of an online forum, and it had my username and password. Once I saw it I remembered the woman I flirted with. As we talked a bit more there was a feeling of unease that would loom over our conversations. It only became more and more of a problem until one day I couldn’t take it anymore and stopped using my account completely.

I never knew what it was about her that could have made me feel that way. I went back to the old website out of curiosity and typed my username and password in.

Apparently someone had been writing to me every single day,

“You aren’t responding.”

“Are you ignoring me?”

“Did something happen to you?”

“I hope you die.”

“I cut my wrists today.”

“Please just send me something.”

・　・　・

・　・　・

Just as I finished reading the message with yesterday’s time stamp I received a new one,

“You finally read them.”

I felt someone’s presence behind me.

I looked over my shoulder.

Title: Witness Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

Something happened to me three days ago while I was walking back home after a night out drinking. It was freezing so I got myself some nice hot tea from a vending machine nearby. Just then a little kid ran past me on my right-hand side. His feet were pounding hard on the pavement. “He should be more careful. It’s too cold to be running around like that,” I thought to myself. I turned away and took a sip of my tea when a woman came up to me. “Have you seen my son?” she asked. I brushed her off because I was exhausted and didn’t want any trouble. I just wanted to get home where it was nice and warm.

I was taken by surprise the next day when I heard that the mother of the boy I saw was stabbed in her own home, where she was left in critical condition. The owner of the tobacco shop told me about it. I didn’t see anything in the newspaper so I don’t know the details, but it looks like the kid discovered his mother and ran all the way to the police station. To think I could’ve helped him...

Hint:

If the boy’s mother was in critical condition, then...

Solution:

The woman who approached him was the one who committed the crime.

Title: The Envelope Type: Curses

The summer before last I had come back home from my job. A single white envelope fell to my feet when I opened the door to my apartment.

I looked it over but my address wasn’t written on it anywhere. The sender’s name wasn’t on there, either. The area around the top was a bit crumpled, and the edge along the seal flap had hardened as though someone ran their fingers over it multiple times.

I badly wanted to see what was inside even though I was creeped out, so I opened it. A sturdy white envelope that had been painstakingly sealed shut slid out. A nervous thought popped into my head, “Is this some kind of curse?” I shook it by my ear but I didn’t hear anything metallic. Even if it was a curse I figured it wouldn’t cause me any physical harm. I opened it.

There was a paper cut-out inside in the shape of a human body. It was a dark crimson color and had little scribbles running all over its surface. I looked a bit closer and saw that the word “NISSE” had been written on it repeatedly in cramped handwriting.

A quick internet search revealed that it was a love charm, intended to make the target have eyes only for its creator. Something about the handwriting, something about the patient way the small letters had been crammed together deeply disturbed me. Whoever made it couldn’t have seriously thought...

--Well, regardless, I’ll never know who it was.

Title: On a Country Road Late at Night1 Type: Personal experience (that might put you in a thoughtful mood)

In October last year I was taking the same country road I always do when I’m returning home from work. It has rice paddies on either side, so it’s nice and narrow, and there are no streetlights about halfway in. Though it was pitch black that night I was driving at a considerable speed.

I’d been hoping that I wouldn’t run into any cars coming from the opposite direction when I saw the flash of pale skin on my left hand side. Though it happened in less than a second I was able to see her appearance so vividly; the wrinkles of her face, the color of her clothes, the bouquet she was holding behind her back.

I was caught completely by surprise and slammed on the brakes. I looked in my rear-view mirror. There was nothing but the night.

I thought I hit her and began to panic, but I realized that I didn’t feel the car hit anything. I forced myself not to dwell on it, seeing as there was nothing I could do, and I just went home.

The next day I told the story to my uncle, who lives right next to that same country road. He told me that there was an old lady with dementia who would occasionally go into the fields and take whatever she wanted from them. He totally convinced me.

I thought that she might have been out in the fields because that was precisely the time of year when cosmos flowers would come into bloom. She most likely wanted to grab the flowers late at night when no one would be out, and she would hide them behind her back, just in case.

I would have ended it on that note, had it just been a story about a troublesome old lady who steals flowers late at night, but I went back to my uncle’s house recently and he told me something new.

Apparently an old lady died the year before last in an accident.

She was hit by a car.

What’s more is it happened in the same area I was driving in that October night.

I wonder if she wanted to find a bouquet that she could remember herself by.2

Even now I remember her so clearly.

I’m sorry for writing such a long story.

link to the original

Translator's notes:

Title: A Mother’s Love Type: Humans can be scary too

Some time ago I went with a friend to have dinner at Denny’s. We ate as usual and afterward held a light conversation while sipping our coffee. It was around nine o’clock when we realized the restaurant was nearly empty. We lowered our voices. 

Then, without warning, my friend stopped in the middle of what he was saying and looked outside. When he looked back at me his face had gone pale. He looked off into the distance again. His eyes were focused on something behind me.

I looked back but didn’t see anything. When I asked him what was up he said, 

“Did you see who’s sitting behind you when we came in?”

I vaguely remembered seeing a mother and her two children, and I remembered that the pasta dish she was eating looked so delicious that I ordered it too. 

“You mean the woman who’s with her kids?”

“No, I mean the woman who’s sitting all by herself. Isn’t it strange that her kids haven’t said a word all this time? I saw their reflections in the window, so I couldn’t make them out very well, but I’m absolutely certain that those are dolls.”

We both began to feel uncomfortable so we left the restaurant.

She was probably mentally ill or something, but it was scary, whatever the case might have been.

I caught a glimpse of her and her “children” as we were leaving.

There was sauce all around their mouths and deep holes where she pushed their eyes in.

Title: Ear Plugs Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning (but are also sort of funny)

The gambling parlor was rambunctious as usual, so I stuffed two pachinko balls into my ears as substitutes for ear plugs. I put them so far in, however, that it was no use trying to get them out, despite my efforts with an earpick.

I visited an acquaintance of mine who worked at a lab because I heard that he still had a powerful electromagnet that was once used for experiments.

He was stunned by my request and said, “Oh, that’s nothing. There’s no need to worry.”

I placed my right ear directly on the magnet. He flipped the switch to the machine. I felt the ball roll right out, just like he said. Tinktink! The sound of metal hitting the magnet resounded through the lab.

Hint:

He placed his right ear on the magnet, but what about his left?

Solution:

Why did he hear a tink sound twice?

Title: On a Snowy Mountain Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

My hobby is hiking up snowy mountains and taking pictures on them.

I climbed the mountain that day as usual but the weather began to worsen, so I went to a small cabin to wait for it to calm down.

A woman was there already, dressed in all red.

There wasn’t any indication that the weather would settle down, so I decided to stay the night.

Upon waking up the next day I noticed that there was another person sleeping in the futon beside me. It seemed as though there still were people stuck outside who needed a safe place to stay. I kept my thoughts to myself and waited for the situation to clear up.

There was yet another person the next day,

and the day after that,

and the day after that.

I thought it strange that this many people were stuck on the mountain, so I kept my camera on to record the room while I slept.

I watched the footage the next day and saw the woman dressed in red take someone into the room, lay them down on a futon and cover their body with a blanket.

Title: If Only Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

A certain family was traveling to the countryside by bus for their vacation. When they reached the base of a mountain, the child said, “I’m hungry!” There was nothing his parents could do but get out at the next stop. It wasn’t long before they arrived.

By the time they were finishing their meal, a television in the restaurant caught their attention. The bus they had been riding was hit by a rockslide, killing the driver and all of the passengers.

The wife said, “If only we didn’t get off that bus.”

The husband immediately got angry and was about to say something, but paused and said, “Oh, I see what you mean,” realizing her intention.

Hint:

It takes time to get off of a bus.

Solution:

There wouldn’t have been an accident if they didn’t stop the bus.

Title: Restricted Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

Several years ago, a 20 year old woman moved to Tokyo from the countryside. She decided on a two-story wooden building which was old but cheap.

It wasn’t until she had just about settled in that she began to get strange phone calls. Her phone would ring at the same time every day and the call would end as soon as she picked the receiver up. The caller somehow made their number restricted until one day, by pure chance, they forgot.

She freaked out when she saw it and returned the call immediately.

There was no answer.

But when she pulled the phone away from her ears she could have sworn she heard the last few notes of a ringtone coming from her closet.

Hint:

How often did she receive calls from that restricted number?

Solution:

Someone had been living in her closet ever since she moved in.

Title: Video Attachment Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

One day, I got a text message from my boyfriend with a video attached to it. When I opened it I saw that it was footage of him committing suicide.

His body thrashed violently as it hung by a rope, and then he was still. The video then ended abruptly.

Hint: If it was a video of her boyfriend committing suicide...

Solution: Who sent the video?

Title: Clairvoyance Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

One day a six year old girl went missing from outside of town.

Her mother talked with her friends about how she was last seen at the park.

Although she searched tirelessly and contacted the police, who led an intense investigation, the little girl couldn’t be found.

Eventually half of the search force gave up.

The girl’s parents grew desperate after a month of searching.

They contacted a famous clairvoyant from America and paid him a large sum of money to come to Japan.

He set to work as soon as he arrived.

Several minutes passed by in silence before he spoke.

“Your daughter’s alive and doing well.”

Her entire family was overjoyed by his words.

Then he went on to say,

“She’s living in luxury and is surrounded by fine furniture. It looks like she’s with a wealthy family.”

Though everyone was a little doubtful, they were relieved to hear someone say she was alive.

Her mother, however, wasn’t at all content and said in an impatient tone,

“Where is my daughter right now? I need to know precisely where she is.”

He said, without missing a beat,

“Your daughter is living around the world.”

Hints:

What does the clairvoyant mean when he says, “Your daughter is living around the world”?

How is that physically possible?

Answer:

She was kidnapped and her organs were harvested.

Title: The Apartment Complex Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

The following is something that happened to me when I was in elementary school.

There was an abandoned building in town –- an apartment complex that was two stories tall and made almost entirely out of concrete.

All of the glass was shattered, and the walls themselves were dirty and in ruins.

Everybody refused to go near it.

One day, my friend and I decided to go there on a test of courage.

We went at around noon so we could see what was on the second floor.

I spotted something on one of the doors from the main corridor.

My friend and I drew closer until we clearly saw that it was graffiti:

“I  a m  i n  t h i s  r o o m”

I opened the door and entered the apartment. My friend lagged behind.

We walked through the entrance hall until we made it to a wall that stretched far to the left and far to the right. 

Again, something was written in graffiti:

“I  a m  o n  y o u r  l e f t”

We exchanged fearful glances but we turned left and continued down the narrow hallway until we came upon two doors --one on either side.

“M y  h e a d  i s  l e f t  m y  b o d y  i s  r i g h t”

was written at the end of the hall.

The moment my friend saw it, he ran out without so much as a yelp.

I stood frozen in place, but I mustered up all my courage and went through the door to my right.

When I entered, I saw that there was something written on the far wall:

“M y  b o d y  i s  r i g h t  b e l o w . . .”

And when I looked down,

“M y  h e a d  i s  c o m i n g  f r o m  t h e  r o o m  b e h i n d  y o u.  

D o n ‘ t  l o o k.”

I immediately ran for one of the windows and jumped out.

I never went back there after that.

Hints:

Did you notice any inconsistencies in the graffiti?

How did the narrator react to what was written on the walls?

What would suddenly make him run in fear if the writing wasn’t enough to scare him away?

Pay attention to the last section --what’s different about it?

Answer:

He wasn’t frightened by graffiti, but by a voice.

Title: Frogs Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

My sister commutes to work by car, but she always takes a short cut along the municipal road.

It’s very narrow, running along the river with dense shrubbery on both sides.

Only people who live in the country would probably understand this, but frogs hop onto the roads in huge amounts whenever it rains during the summer, such that there’s no way to avoid them whenever you’re driving.

The road was littered with frogs, as usual, when my sister was driving home one rainy night.

A car was moving slowly in front of her, and the driver was a woman who couldn’t have been that much older than my sister.

She was going about five miles an hour and kept swerving left and right.

“Is this her first time driving down this road? She probably doesn’t know it’s impossible to avoid hitting those frogs,” my sister thought to herself as she tried to find an opening.

There was no way to get around her, but she figured if she kept driving the woman in front would notice her eventually.

She put up with it as long as she could until she finally honked her horn.

The woman ahead of her didn’t seem to notice that anyone had been behind her and was clearly startled.

She shot off into the distance at a high speed.

“Boy, did she just speed off,” my sister said, her face growing pale.

Hints:

Why was the woman so startled when she noticed that someone was behind her?

What would make her want to get out of there as fast as possible?

Maybe she didn’t want to be seen.

It’s been made very clear that there’s no use trying to avoid the frogs.

Answer:

She enjoyed running them over.

Title: Ghost Pictures Type: Stories that are scary once you understand their meaning

When I was talking with two of my friends, 

we somehow started talking about how long it had been since we last went out to take pictures of ghosts, 

so later that night we went to a house in the mountains that had been partially demolished in the wake of a grisly murder.

We started out in the entryway and went to the living room, 

then to the bathroom, the kitchen, 

daddy’s library, 

then we climbed up to the second floor, where we went to the kid’s room and on to the veranda to the parents’ bedroom, where we descended back to the first floor.

Then we backtracked through the entire house, one at a time, taking pictures of everything we could.

Today we looked at the developed pictures and were disappointed.

There was nothing creepy in them.

We were there, but there weren’t any ghosts.

“That’s odd, we should’ve captured something.”

“I dunno, maybe they went to heaven already, or something.”

“Maybe you’re right. Looks like we won’t get anything there. I can’t believe we did all that for nothing.”

“That’s not true! We passed by a pretty nice house on the way there. We should go there next.”

“Really? Sweet! Do you know if that one’s abandoned too?”

“No, it isn’t. Nothing happened there like at the other one. Let’s go tonight.”

“Okay, let’s get ready.”

I can’t wait. It’s been so long that I’m nearly trembling with excitement.

Hints:

What do you know about the house they’re going to next?

How do they know the rooms of the first house so well?

The narrator says at the end, “It’s been so long that I’m nearly trembling with excitement.” 

Answer:

The narrator and his friends are murderers.