Project Kowai

Kategoria: Bilingual

  • The Girlfriend’s Message

    This story is also known as ”Toilet Paper” in some sources.

    It’s been two weeks since my girlfriend found out I cheated on her.

    She didn’t contact me at all this whole time, but now she finally invited me over.

    But both of us were really awkward and just sitting there in silence.

    I couldn’t handle that kind of atmosphere so I ran away to hide in the bathroom.

    I happened to notice there was something written on the end of the toilet paper roll.

    What was it? Nervous, I unrolled the paper and found a message from my girlfriend written on the paper.

    The message went on, line after line.

    I unrolled the whole thing and carefully read and reflected on each word.

    /////////

    From Mami

    You betrayed me. That is the truth.

    Let’s undo it all from now on.

    The precious time I spent with you…

    I realized it’s important to me.

    To destroy everything over this

    is completely unforgivable.

    And your decision to cheat on me…

    We can forget about all that. Her

    Connection with you will be wiped clean

    I’ll give you that. We’ve both suffered. My

    suffering, all this suffering, has been enough.

    Let’s go out… Together, okay?

    To Takashi

    /////////

    Tears well in my eyes. I can hear Mami waiting outside the door. 

    I’ll go back out and give her a big hug.

    浮気をしたのが彼女にばれて2週間。

    ずっと連絡がなかった彼女がやっと部屋にあげてくれた。

    でもお互い気まずくて一言も口をきけないまま時間だけが過ぎていく。

    僕はその空気に耐えられなくなってトイレに逃げ込んだ。

    ふと脇を見るとトイレットペーパーの端にペンで何かを書いてあった。

    なんだろう。

    どきどきしながら紙を引き出すと、そこに彼女からのメッセージが書き込まれていた。

    メッセージは何行にもわたっていた。

    僕は紙を全部引っ張り出して噛みしめるように読んでいった。

    ////////////////////////

    真美より

    あなたは私を裏切った。それは事実

    でももうすべてリセットしていいと思うの

    あなたと過ごした宝物のような日々。

    それが私にとって大切だと気づいたから。

    なにもかもぶち壊してしまうこと。

    許されないことだもんね。

    あなたが浮気していたことは、

    全部忘れてしまえるわ。あの娘と

    あなたとの関係もこれで帳消しってこと

    にしてあげる。お互いつらかったよね。私と

    あなたは 十分に苦しんだから。これから楽

    しんじゃおうよ。一緒にね。

    隆史へ

    ////////////////////////

    涙があふれてきた。いま扉の外に真美が待っている気配がする。

    はやく出て行って彼女を抱きしめてあげよう。

    Source

    This is another story where the solution is to read things backwards, but only for a part of the story. The girlfriend’s message is written on toilet paper, but the narrator decides to unwind the piece completely before reading it rather than reading it in the order the girlfriend intended. The letter, as it is written here, also begins with a signature and ends with addressing the narrator. Usually, a letter would be structured in the opposite way, which is another hint the narrator misses that he is reading the letter wrong.

    Due to this misundestanding, the narrator deludes himself into believing he’s been forgiven. In reality, the girlfriend is directly stating that she will not forgive him and heavily implies she is about to commit murder-suicide. The story ends on the moment of tension where the reader knows exactly what’s about to happen while the narrator remains blissfully unaware.

    —

    , ,

  • I’m Really Sorry

    A story that’s scary when you get it

    Friend: I’m really sorry about this

    Me: Hey, stop!

    Friend: My sis… My little sis is sick… I don’t have any money…

    Me: Are you okay? Hey, calm down!

    Friend: Thank you…..

    Me: I… um, well, if 100,000 yen is enough, I can lend you that much

    Friend: Truly, thank you… also, um, how should I say this…

    Me: Here, you can have leftovers from dinner if you’d like.

    Friend: Thank you…

    Me: What are you saying? You know we’re true friends.

    Friend: To be honest, I was thinking about killing myself… If it wasn’t for you, I’d already…

    Me: You really don’t have to worry about it

    Friend: I’m so sorry for bothering you this late at night

    Do you understand the meaning??

    意味がわかると怖い話

    友「本当にごめんな」

    俺「おいやめろって！」

    友「妹が…妹が病気で…金がいるんだ…」

    俺「大丈夫か？気をしっかり持てよ」

    友「…ありがとう………」

    俺「に…いや、10万でよかったら貸してやるよ」

    友「本当にありがとう…あと、その…なんていうか…」

    俺「ほら、晩飯の残りで良かったら食ってけよ」

    友「ありがとう…」

    俺「…なに言ってんだよ。それに、俺たち親友だろ？」

    友「実は自殺しようと思ってて…お前がいなかったらもう…」

    俺「そんなに気にすんなよ」

    友「こんな夜中にごめんな」

    どういう意味かわかりますか??

    Source

    The main hints to the real meaning of the conversation here are in its awkward progression. The conversation just barely makes logical sense… until you reach the final line from the friend, which really makes more sense as the beginning of the conversation than the end. Taken as the beginning, the story can be read backward, and a much more alarming interaction is revealed. What is the friend really apologizing for…?

    —

    , ,

  • I Think Ghosts Are Real

    115: anon open: ：2017/05/01(Mon)13:07:37 ID:Nqk

    242 The following is an anonymous message posted on behalf of a VIP : 2010/01/02(Sat) 20:45:44.68 ID:5e2tTJbD0

    I think ghosts are real.

    When I was little, I could see my big sister.

    She wore the same dirty clothes as me and we lived together.

    But one day I couldn’t see her anymore.

    Mommy and daddy won the lottery. They told me I had daydreams of a sister because we were so poor.

    But now we’re very happy!

    Although I heard that the lottery money is almost gone.

    123: anon open : 2017/05/01(月)14:42:53 ID:JDH

    By the way I don’t understand >>115 could someone explain it to me

    124: anon open : 2017/05/01(月)14:46:05 ID:Nqk

    >>123

    The big sis was sold (or killed for insurance money or organ trade)

    So, if the money is running out now, what happens next…

    115 ：名無しさん＠おーぷん ：2017/05/01(月)13:07:37 ID:Nqk

    242 以下、名無しにかわりましてVIPがお送りします 2010/01/02(土) 20:45:44.68 ID:5e2tTJbD01

    オバケって本当にいるとおもいます。

    小さいころ、わたしにはお姉ちゃんが見えていました。

    同じきたない服をきて、いっしょに住んでいました。

    でもある日お姉ちゃんは見えなくなりました。

    パパと、ママが宝くじをあてました。

    びんぼうだったから、そんなはくちゅうむを見たのだと言われました。

    今はとってもしあわせです。

    でもそろそろ宝くじのお金がなくなっちゃいそうです。

    123 ：名無しさん＠おーぷん ：2017/05/01(月)14:42:53 ID:JDH2

    ところで>>115の意味が分からんのやけど誰か解説してクレメンス

    124 ：名無しさん＠おーぷん ：2017/05/01(月)14:46:05 ID:Nqk3

    >>123

    お姉ちゃんは売られた（もしくは保険金殺害か臓器売買）んやで

    で、そろそろお金が無くなりそうってことは次は

    Source

    1. The duplication of the user interface elements here isn’t a mistake, it is a transparent indication that the story is being copypasted from an earlier thread. ↩︎
    2. This reply is posted by a different person than the story itself, as indicated by the ID. ↩︎
    3. The ID here shows that this response is posted by the same person who copypasted the story into the thread. ↩︎

    This story relies on the readers’ recognition of trafficking and exploitation of children who come from poverty as an ongoing issue (in both Japan and elsewhere), or else some knowledge of a not-so-distant past in which girls were either tricked or sold by their families into prostitution. In this sense, the story directly challenges an image of Japan or the modern times as ”safe” or as having overcome issues of wealth disparity. Selling your child should be unthinkable in this day and age, and yet it still continues to happen. The bleak realization is enhanced by the naive and even childish writing style of the main character: she mostly writes in hiragana, using only kanji at an elementary school reading level. It is the contrast between the childlike innocence and the cynical realization of real-world evils that is at the core of what’s ”scary” in this story.

    —

    , ,

  • I Died

    94: open anon : 2017/05/01(Mon) 12:43:50 ID:2sQ

          I died.

    You might not believe me but I’m dead.

    Too much to explain. It was so sudden

    Have you ever been totally blindsighted?

    Just met my dead mom and everything. She says, “so you

    Died, then?” as her first words. But I’m happy.

    94 ：名無しさん＠おーぷん ：2017/05/01(月)12:43:50 ID:2sQ

    　　死んだ。

    　おれは、今死んだ。

    　まえもって知らせてほしい位、唐突だった。その時は、思考が追いつかず

    　え?ってなっていた。

    　もう、訳が分からないの。

    　今はもう、幸せだ。

    　死んだカーチャンに会えたもん。「死

    　んだのか」が第一声だがな。で、

    　だ。過去には、触れないで欲しい

    Source

    There is a hidden message that turns this story into a curse. If you haven’t tried to puzzle it out yet, give it a shot, because this one is pretty easy!

    The message is, of course, hidden in the first character (Japanese) or word (English) of each line. The awkward line breaks probably give it away more than anything. In Japanese, the hidden message reads ”おまえも今死んだ”, which is almost directly translated into ”you too have just died” in the English version. Of course, this means that the English story itself isn’t a very direct translation, especially with the reduced number of lines, but the gist of the story and the hidden message seem to me to be the more important parts of this particular story.

    —

    ,

  • Because I Wasn’t Aware

    129: True scary stories anon : 2007/07/04(Wed) 13:34:50 ID:Ue07ijGRO

    Happened one evening.

    I was reading a book in my room when there was a sudden banging at my window.

    Surprised, I turned to look, and saw my friend B was excitedly knocking on my window.

    “Hey A! Listen to this!”

    I was confused but I opened the window and B started enthusiastically explaining his story.

    “So, this just happened a moment ago!!”

    “Uh, B, wait a sec…”

    “C’mon, just listen first! I was riding my bike just now, right along the river.”

    “…Okay?”

    “So I was riding for a while, but then I felt like something was a little off? So I get off my bike, right.”

    “What happened?”

    “My bicycle lock was still on!”

    “Huh?”

    “It was on! The lock was still attached! So the wheel couldn’t turn!”

    “…? How did you ride your bike then?”

    “I have no idea. Until that moment, I could ride it just fine. After that moment, the bike wouldn’t move anymore.”

    “Like, at all?”

    “As soon as I noticed the lock was still there, I just couldn’t ride anymore.”

    “Really…”

    “Maybe it was possible because I wasn’t aware it wasn’t possible…? Like it was because of my unconsciousness? Oh, A, you were going to say something just now. What was it?”

    “Huh? Oh, yeah… I was going to say…”

    “Yeah?”

    “…This is the 5th floor, B. How are you standing at my window?”

    129 ：本当にあった怖い名無し：2007/07/04(水) 13:34:50 ID:Ue07ijGRO

    ある日の夕方。

    僕が自分の部屋で本を読んでいると、突然窓をバンバン！と叩く音がした。

    びっくりして振り返ると、友達のB君が興奮しながら窓を叩いていた。

    「A君！開けて開けて！！」

    僕が慌てて窓を開けると同時に、物凄い勢いでB君が話し出す。

    「あのさ、ついさっきの話なんだけど！！」

    「ちょ、ちょっとB君、その前にさ…」

    「まあ聞けって。さっき自転車乗ってたんだよ。河原走ってて」

    「…うん」

    「暫く走ってて、何かおかしいな～って思って自転車降りたらさ…」

    「どうしたの？」

    「自転車のチェーンかけたまんまだったんだよ」

    「え？」

    「だから、チェーンがかかってて、タイヤが回らなかったの」

    「…？それでどうやって走れるの？」

    「分かんないよ。その時までは走れたんだよ。でもさ、その後はだめだった」

    「だめって？」

    「チェーンかかってるって事に気付いたら、走れなくなっちゃった」

    「そうなんだ…」

    「無意識だからできたのかなぁ…。あ、A君さっき何か言いかけてなかった？」

    「え？！…あ、うん…あのさ…」

    「？」

    「…ここ、5階なんだけど、B君どうやってそこに立ってるの?」

    Source

    This story relies less on an overt twist and more on an implied narrative climax. B’s experience, relayed to the narrator, introduces the possibility of either a kind of dependence ”reality” has on the unconscious mind, or of B having a special power in that regard. Either way, A pointing out the impossibility of their current conversation has imminently doomed B to become aware and thus unable to continue the conversation… and falling from the height of a 5th floor doesn’t exactly bode well for B. Despite the structural simplicity, the theme of paying around with the unconsciousness and its relation to reality gives this story an interesting metaphysical aspect.

    —

    ,

  • The Apartment Elevator

    363 : The following is an anonymous message posted on behalf of a VIP : 2009/06/15(Mon) 01:37:53.66 ID:yXwoSE//P

    This is a story my friend told me

    This friend lives in a high-rise apartment building. He lives on the 14 floor so he uses the elevator a lot.

    This happened one night when he was going home. He got on the elevator and pressed the button for the 14th floor. Just after the door closed and the elevator started moving up, the button for the 8th floor lit up.

    He thought, “oh, someone must be getting on…” Then, with a sudden realization, he frantically started pressing the buttons for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th floors.The elevator went right past 2nd floor but stopped on the 3rd, where my friend rammed through the door before it was even fully open yet. From there, he ran down the stairs and fled the apartment building. He spent the night browsing magazines at a convenience store.

    When he told me this story, he added: “It was probably just my imagination, but you never know lol”

    Although, he still doesn’t seem to use the elevator at night…

    363： 以下、名無しにかわりましてVIPがお送りします : 2009/06/15(月) 01:37:53.66 ID:yXwoSE//P

    友人の話

    その友人は高層マンションに住んでいます。

    彼は14階に住んでいるためエレベーターは必須なのですが。

    夜中に帰宅したときのことです。

    エレベーターに乗って14階のボタンを押し、

    ドアが閉まり動き出したところ、８階のボタンのランプが点灯したそうです。

    『あぁ、誰か乗ってくるのか・・』

    そう思った直後、ハッとした友人は慌てて２階３階４階５階とボタンを連打しました。

    エレベーターは２階は通過してしまったものの、

    ３階で止まってくれたので開きかけのドアをこじ開けるほどの勢いで外へ飛び出しました。

    そのまま階段を駆け降りてマンションをあとにして、朝までコンビニで立ち読みしていたそうです。

    『まぁ俺の思い過ごしだと思うけど、万が一ってこともあるしなww』

    そう言った友人は、しかし夜間にエレベーターを使うのは今でも控えているみたいです。

    Source

    This one is a classic and fairly simple common sense twist. Why does the friend suddenly freak out? Because someone calling the elevator to a floor doesn’t make the buttons inside the elevator light up. They only light up when that button is pressed inside the elevator.

    —

    ,

  • My Mother Loved Sciences

    123: The following is an anonymous message posted on behalf of a VIP : 2009/06/14(日) 23:45:50.57 ID:d64VugDc0

    I’m at my parents’ house for the first time in a while and I’m reminded of my departed mother

    Mom loved sciences even though it was rare for a girl in her day. Now that I’m thinking about it, she even memorized the whole periodic table…

    Mom developed dementia

    The image of her unaware of her surroundings, always bothering my dad is still lingering in my mind

    Going into my late mom’s study, for the first time I felt uncomfortable

    I can’t find the calendar I gave my mom as a present

    I was rummaging through her desk for nothing in particular when I found pieces of the calendar, cut apart with scissors, organized neatly on the table

    No matter how bad her mental state was, she always treasured my presents… this was a shock

    It made me emotional so I looked through the carefully organized dates:

    1/18 4/9 2/8 4/1 3/16 6/16 5/17 7/15 6/8 2/7 6/12 7/15

    Just one date, 6/8, was flipped over for some reason, and as I was turning it over to match the others my dad called me from downstairs.

    Today, for the first time in 5 years, I get to eat my dad’s home cooking. I push sentimentality to the back of my mind and leave mom’s study.

    123 名前：以下、名無しにかわりましてVIPがお送りします 投稿日：2009/06/14(日) 23:45:50.57 ID:d64VugDc0

    久しぶりに実家に帰ると、亡くなった母を思い出す

    女性には珍しく科学が好きだった母

    そういえば元素記号表を丸暗記していたっけ・・・

    母は認知症だった

    身の回りの世話をつきっきりでしていた父を困らせてばかりいた姿が目に浮かぶ

    そして今は亡き母の書斎に入った時、私は初めて違和感を覚えた

    母にプレゼントしたカレンダーが見つからない

    何の気無しにテーブルを漁ると、ハサミでバラバラにされた幾つかのカレンダーの切れ端が順序良く並んでいる事に気が付いた

    母はどんなに呆けていても、私のプレゼントは大切にしてくれていたのにと…私はショックを受けた

    私は感傷とともに並べられた日付を整理した

    4/4 4/4 4/10 6/11 3/1 6/12 5/6 7/2 6/7 6/17 4/10 4/14 5/16

    私は一枚だけ向きが逆になっている6/17に気づき、他の日付と同じ向きに変えていると、一階の父が私を呼んだ。

    今日から五年振りの父の手料理が食べられる。

    感傷を胸に押し込み、私は母の書斎を後にした

    Source

    This twist hinges on a puzzle, effectively a cipher that can be decoded through context clues, some of which are more apparent than others. The first and most important clue is that the narrator’s mother loved sciences enough to learn the periodic table by heart. The second is that it was unusual for her to treat a gift with disrespect, and yet she had completely ruined the narrator’s gift by cutting it. The dates arranged on the desk are not incidental, but vital to decoding the story. With these hints, you may want to take an additional moment to see if you can decipher the story.

    The twist is a message hidden within the cut-up dates arranged on the table. Matching each date to an element on the periodic table gives each date a corresponding syllable, which then form a message left by the mother for her son.

    In Japanese, the dates-as-elements read:

    Ti　Ti　Ni　Au　Na　Hg　Mo　Ra　Re　tA　Ni　Ge　Te

    The message translates roughly to ”Don’t meet with your dad, he has been giving me Hg (mercury), run away.” The mother’s dementia, then, wasn’t dementia at all, but the slowly building symptoms of mercury poisoning, which as now killed her. The mother has left behind a message for the son to let him know, fearing that the father may now begin poisoning the son.

    In English, the message here reads: He Co O K S Po I sO N Hg Ru N.

    If you found this story a bit too involved to figure out without the explanation, you’re not alone. This story is still brought up in 2channel threads as being way too complicated and involved for an Imikowa story, since it requires some detective work to ”solve.”

    This story was an interesting one to translate, since the Japanese sequence of syllables wouldn’t make any sense in English, nor could it be directly translated using syllables from the periodic table. In addition, the set-up requires the message to only use elements that could correspond to dates, which cuts out most of the periodic table. Even so, I found it important to construct some kind of coherent English message to preserve the puzzle style of the story and allow English-language readers a chance to decipher the message without relying on the Japanese for the scare factor.

    —

    , ,

  • The Old Doll

    662 ：：2007/08/31(Fri) 13:25:54 ID:IFbkEKfe0

    “In my college days, I had a friend who suddenly told me that a doll he had in his room was cursed. The full story was that he bought it on a trip to Europe, this doll of an old man sitting in a rocking chair, and supposedly it was cursed.

    I hadn’t ever seen something like a cursed doll so in all honesty I was pretty excited. I don’t really believe in ghosts or anything like that, so I asked my friend to lend me the doll so I could see if it was really cursed.

    And so I borrowed the doll from my friend, got it out of its box, and put it on top of my TV where it would be easy to see.

    And so the test began.

    To be fair, the doll’s face was weirdly realistic, so it had the feel of a cursed doll. But it also seemed like the kind of ordinary item you could find anywhere if you really wanted to.

    In the end, a week passed and nothing happened at all.

    Just as I thought, it wasn’t really cursed. I was half relieved, half disappointed, so I decided to keep it for one more week just to make sure.

    So in the end it had been two weeks since I got the doll, and nothing weird had happened.

    I decided to call my friend to let him know the results of my experiment and that he had been mistaken about the doll. Maybe poke some fun at him too (lol)

    I called him and thought he must have been shaking with fear when he picked up the phone.

    Friend: Oh, [my name]. How’d it go..?

    Me: Ha, you’re such a scaredy cat! It’s been two weeks and nothing has happened at all!

    Friend: Seriously… So then where is the doll now? Did you get rid of it?

    Me: I wouldn’t just throw it out like that! It’s been decorating the top of my TV this whole time. It stands there looking dumb, just like it did on the first day.

    At that, my friend suddenly fell silent. Was he really that scared of the supposed curse?”

    662 ：：2007/08/31(金) 13:25:54 ID:IFbkEKfe0

    『大学時代に友人がいきなり、部屋にある人形が呪われてるって騒ぎだしたんだよね。

    んで詳しく聞くと、ヨーロッパに旅行に行った時に買った、揺り椅子に座った老人の人形

    がとにかく呪われてるって言うわけ。

    呪いの人形の話とかよく聞くけど、実際目にしたことなんてもちろんないから、

    オレちょっとワクワクしちゃってさ。

    それにもともとそういう心霊の類はいまいち信じてなかったから、

    人形をもらって本当に呪われてるのか確かめてみようと思ったんだ。

    んで友達からその人形を借りてきてさ、箱から出して見やすいようにテレビの上に置いたんだ。

    んで検証開始ってやつ。

    確かに言われてみれば、人形の顔は妙にリアルでさ、そういう風に見れば呪いの人形ぽいけど、でも探せばどこにでもありそうな代物。

    んで結局何事もなく一週間過ぎてしまった。

    やっぱり呪いの人形なんてあるわけないって半分安心、半分ガックりしたけど、念のためにもう一週間様子を見ることにしたんだ。

    で、最終的に初日から二週間経ったんだけど、結局何にもなかった。

    友達はきっとなんか勘違いしてたんだろうってことで、オレはソイツに報告の電話をしたわけ。

    あとついでに茶化してやろって(笑)

    今頃震えてるんだろとか思ってたら友達が電話に出た

    友『おお○○か、どうだった・・・？』

    俺『お前さ～、ビビり過ぎだよ～(笑)二週間も経ったけど何もなかったぜ』

    友『マヂか・・・んで今人形は？捨てた？』

    俺『いやさすがに勝手には捨てないよ～テレビの上に飾ったんだけどさ、今も初日と同じで、馬鹿みたいに突っ立ったまんまだぜ？(笑)』

    そしたら友達がそこで突然黙りこんじゃったんだよね。呪いが信じてもらえなくてそんな

    にショックだったのかな？』

    Source

    Here we have an example of wordplay rewarding an attentive reader with a scary twist. The twist itself isn’t particularly difficult: the doll is described as sitting in a rocking chair originally, but by the end, it ”stands there looking dumb” on top of the narrator’s television. Clearly something is going on with the doll, but it’s unclear if the narrator is simply overlooking this or somehow under the doll’s influence and unable to see its cursedness at this point. The friend, of course, notices the discrepancy, or perhaps is more perceptive to it since he already knows the doll is cursed to begin with.

    One somewhat interesting note, my first encounter with this story was from a version posted in 2012, but the detail of keeping something on top of the TV made me think it was probably a much older story. By 2012, CRT televisions were well on their way out and most TV’s were getting too thin to use as a surface for decorations. Indeed, after some digging, I found this version, which was posted in 2007, when a CRT TV would be much more common. It’s possible that the story has been copypasted on 2channel and other platforms since much earlier than that, and it may draw from offline horror stories circulated before it appeared on 2channel.

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  • The Patient who Lost His Voice

    741: this name is already in use : 2010/04/13(Tue) 23:00:35 ID:J3ClYQWc

    This happened at a certain hospital in the middle of the night.

    I was handling paperwork in the records room when I felt someone peeking in: ○-san1.

    “What’s wrong, ○-san?”

    He had undergone a surgery where he lost his voice, so he just stood there looking unhappy.

    “A call home? Did something happen? If it’s about the paperwork, I’m working on it right now.”

    He lifted his pinky finger and then smacked his forehead, shaking his head.

    Pinky… Woman… Wife? Is everything alright?

    Just then, I remembered that ○-san’s wife was with him.

    “Is your wife alright? Should I go check?”

    ○-san nodded his head. I quickly made my way to the room ○-san was in.

    As the room came into view, ○-san’s son ran out calling for help. “Help! My mom-”

    The wife indeed appeared sick, and I moved her to the ward with the help of her son. It seemed she was overextended and anemic, so we gave her an IV drip and let her rest.

    After a while, she felt better and had calmed down, so I went and finished ○-san’s medical paperwork so the wife and son could go home. I also conveyed that ○-san told me about the wife’s illness. For some reason this made the wife cry, and the son looked like he might cry, too.

    Once the car came to pick them up, I whispered: “goodbye, ○-san.”

    741 ：既にその名前は使われています：2010/04/13(火) 23:00:35 ID:J3ClYQWc

    とある病院での夜中の出来事。

    記録室で書き物をしていたら、ひょっこりと部屋を覗く気配がした。○さん。

    「どうしたの？○さん」

    声を失う手術をした○さん、困ったように立っている。

    「家に電話？何かあった？書類なら今書いてるよ？」

    小指を立てたあと、額に手を当てて頭をゆらゆらさせている。

    小指・・・女・・・女房。・・・・気分悪い？

    いま、○さんに奥さんが付き添ってる事を思い出した。

    「奥さん、気分悪い？見に行った方がいい？」

    ○さんがうなずいた。急いで○さんのいる部屋に走る。

    部屋が見えたとき、部屋から息子さんが出てきて「すいませんお袋が！」と叫んだ。

    具合の悪そうな奥さんを、息子さんと２人で病棟に移し、

    疲れによる貧血だろうということで、点滴をしてしばらく様子を見ることにした。

    しばらくして様子が落ち着いたのを見て、

    家に帰れるように、奥さんと息子さんに○さんの診断書を渡した。

    同時に、○さんが奥さんの不調を教えてくれた事も。

    なんだか奥さんは泣いていて、息子さんは泣きそうだった。

    迎えに来た車を見送って、つぶやいた。

    「さよなら、○さん」

    Source

    1. In Japanese, the character ”○” is used as a blank, so ”○-san” could also be translated to Mr. Blank or Mr. ___. I decided to keep ”○-san” in this case as a cultural marker since matters involving hospitalization and death work quite differently in Japan than they do, for example, in the US. I feel the story makes the most sense when grounded within the context of Japanese hospital culture. ↩︎

    This story may not count as ”scary,” even with the twist. The twist, of course, is that ○-san was dead the whole time. Small hints are scattered throughout the story: from the beginning, ○-san’s presence is felt rather than seen or heard; moving the wife to the ward means ○-san’s room was somewhere else, implied in this case to be the morgue; the family waiting for the ”medical paperwork,” or the death certificate, before they could leave; and, finally, the family’s reaction to learning ○-san was still looking out for his wife. The story is melancholy, a ghost story for sure, but whether it is a scary story may be up to the reader.

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  • Living with my Parents

    437: The following is an anonymous message posted on behalf of a VIP : 2011/01/16(Sun) 15:20:06.90 ID:MyhMF80b0

    Ok so I live with my parents, right

    earlier I tried to text my gf to ask if we could meet up tonight, but I accidentally sent the text to my mom instead lmao

    this is her reply:

    “My apologies, Mr. [my name]. Tonight will not be possible.” like what?? lmaoooo

    so then I respond: “mom what the heck lol” and she replies IMMEDIATELY with “where are you?”

    so I tell her I’m just home and for some reason she tries to call right away?? lmao and like when I answered she just hung up but she keeps calling like what kind of turbo harassment is this lmaoooo

    I wonder if she’s having an affair or something lol

    437 ：以下、名無しにかわりましてVIPがお送りします：2011/01/16(日) 15:20:06.90 ID:MyhMF80b0

    俺、実家暮らしなんだけどさ。

    さっき彼女に『今夜会える？』ってメールしようとして、

    間違って家にいるカーチャンに送っちまったわけｗｗｗ

    そしたら返信が、

    『ごめん。○○（俺の名前）さん。今夜は会えないの』だってｗｗｗ

    『ちょ、お袋なにふざけてんの（笑）』って送ったらすぐに返信がきて、『今どこ？』。

    『家だよ』ってメールしたら、なぜか電話かけてきやがんのｗｗｗ

    出てもすぐ切るし、かと思うとまた鳴るし、テラいやがらせｗｗｗ

    もしやカーチャン浮気してたのかｗｗｗ

    Source

    This story requires a bit more paranoia and perhaps some knowledge of true crime content to drive the reader to the twist. The narrator’s carefree nonchalance in narrating the story works as a contrast to the more paranoid meaning hidden underneath. Why would the mother of such a casual person respond with this level of formality? It seems more likely that the person in possession of the mother’s phone is someone else. Furthermore, this person, whomever it is, seems very insistent on finding the narrator. The implied story here is that something bad has happened to the mother, and the culprit is communicating with the narrator to get rid of a person who might go looking for her. Repeatedly calling him and hanging up as soon as he picks up the call? Well, that seems like a great way to find out where the narrator is by following the sound of the ringing phone…

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