A TO Z CHALLENGE 2016 -- RED ROOM (AKAI HEYA)

You knock on her door, but there is no answer.  She never does.  You don't worry too much because her music is blaring.

You call out to tell her to go to sleep since it's late.  She heard because the music quiets instantly.

When you knock the next morning, she says nothing.  You go downstairs to make breakfast. Twenty minutes later, you begin to worry. She's usually stomping down the stairs by now.

You go check on her.  Your heart is doing flip-flops for some reason as you reach her door.  You knock and call out again then warn her that you're entering.

You hesitate turning the knob, but you finally do.  The streaming sunlight blinds you for a second.  Blinking, your eyesight adjusts and you see thick streaks of red on the wall closest to you.

Paint?  Then the rusty smell hits you and your gut clenches in fear and sickness.

Not paint.  Blood.  Red stained fingers are stretched out on the far side of the bed. You scream.



The Red Room is a Japanese urban legend in which a pop-up asks a series of questions and then a list of names appears at the bottom with your name added.  One specific question is: Do you like the red room?

When you see a specific pop-up, you commit suicide by using your own blood to paint your room.

This urban legend has an actual murder that is attached to it.  A girl murdered another girl.  Sasebo Slashing (as it is called) took place in 2004.  The girl viciously beat and cut up the victim.

Supposedly, one of her topped bookmarked site on her computer was the Red Room Curse.

A TO Z CHALLENGE 2016 -- LOIRA DO BANHEIRO

You were dared by your friend to perform the ritual.  You think it's stupid.  Flush three times, kick three times.  Yeah, like that's going to do anything.

You leave the stall and turn on the tap and curse three time.

You swear this is the last time you take a dare from your friends.

A flick in the mirror has you turning around.  You gasp, startled by the girl.  Blonde hair streams down her back.  You apologize.

She says nothing.  Then she turns and attacks.


The Blonde in the Bathroom or Loira do Banheiro is Brazillan.  She is the urban legend that is similar to Bloody Mary and Hanako-san.

She is said to be either a deliquent girl that slipped, a teacher murdered by her husband for betraying him with a student, or she was a viscount's daughter that died after being forced to marry and then dying of pnemonia after running off to Europe with her lover.  Some versions have the girl raped.

No matter what version, Loria do Banheiro will terrify a person with her bloodied appearance.  She has no eyes and is cut up.

She may or may not attack the summoner.  

A TO Z CHALLENGE 2016 -- BUS 302 OR THE MIDNIGHT BUS, BOROBOROTON

It's late at night, you're on the bus minding your own business.  The bus let's on some passengers, but you don't pay attention. Suddenly, an elderly man gets up from his seat and starts yelling at you for no reason.
He gets physically violent.

The bus driver kicks you both off the bus, leaving you stranded with the old man. Angry now, you confront the old man, and he has the audacity to say that he saved your life.  How? you ask.

This is the urban legend Bus 302 from China.  Also called the Midnight Bus.

It has various versions, but in all of them the bus is doomed.

The young man learns from the old  man that the passengers that got on the bus had no feet.  They were spirits. The young man then learns that the bus had disappeared just after midnight and was never found again.

In a similar version, it was drunk man and an old man with all the other passengers being spirits.  The last version I found, had a female bus driver, three nasty robbers, and a poor guy who couldn't fight to save the woman's virtue.  The bus on this one is driven off a cliff.

Chinese ghosts are believed to flow when they walk, and that their heels don't touch the ground.  So, they have 'no feet'.

gh

 A slight movement wakes you.  The small shift of bedding closer to your face.  You think that it was only whimsy and you close your eyes to go back to sleep.  Then you feel it again.  The bedding is moving on its own.

You try to escape but it's no use. You are thrown out of bed and crash to the floor. Then, the blanket wraps around your neck to strangle you.

This, my friends, is the Boroboro-ton, which basically translates  to tattered futon from the Japanese.

It appeared in 1781 in the Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, which was one of the books in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō. This set of books featured spirits, ghosts, monsters, and beasts in folklore, art, and literature.

It is a Tsukumogami (artifact spirit).  Usually these yokai are objects that have been possessed by ghosts or spirits, or have been in use for 100 years.  It is believed by many that the object will then receive a soul. They then will look pristine despite its age.

If they feel ignored or neglected, that's when they will come alive and become monsters.

So, next time you wake up with the blankets wrapped tightly around you suffocatingly  . . . Beware! It might not be your imagination.  They really might be out to kill you!

A TO Z CHALLENGE -- AKA MANTO

So, you have to go to the bathroom.  You enter a stall and do your business.

A frigid draft floats over the stall wall.  Goosebumps rise on your arms.  Your heart skips a beat as the lights above flicker and die.

 An inhuman voice speaks. "Do you want a red cloak or blue cloak?"

Chills crawl all over your body at the disimbodied voice.  You have to make a choice.  Which one will you choose?



And that my friends is the basis of the urban legend from Japan called Aka Manto, which translates to Red Cloak.  It has many names Red Mantle, Red Cape, Red Paper Blue Paper, and more.  In Romanji they are: Aka Manto Ao Manto, Aka Hanten Ao Hanten, or Aka Kami Ao Kami.

And sitting alone and vulnerable, you contemplate them.  Only, either choice is dismal.

With red, you end up being beheaded and your blood runs down your body in a grotesque mock cape, your flesh is ripped from your back (and some versions have the ghost tying it around your neck), skinned alive, or slits your throat (again mocking a red cape).

With blue, your blood is entirely drained, or you are suffocated by choking. Either of which will leave you a sick shade of blue.

If you think choosing another color will get freed.  Sorry. Not happening.  Any other color gets you sucked into a vortex to some netherworld. . .
Well, that is if you can believe the last version of the story.
If you say yellow . . . yellow may let you live.

Yellow gets you a swirlie in your own filth.

Lastly, you might get away if you chose no color at all.

This modern day urban legend has its roots starting around 1935.  There are variations of who started it.  There was a rumor that a to-die-for handsome man wore a white mask to cover his face and he hung out in shoe lockers.  Another is a banker wanted to cause a panic. He didn't start hanging out in girl's bathrooms until the 1980s.

In any case, this urban legend may have even older roots.  The Kamishibai (kah-mee-she-bye, 'paper theater'), a traditional storytelling method, has mention of a gentlman in a red cape said to be magical.

A TO Z CHALLENGE 2016 . . . THE REVEAL!

As those that know me and my weird tastes in A to Z, this year's Fun, Fun, Fun! will come as no surprise.

And so --- Without further ado --- The Reveal!

This year's theme is . . .

GHOSTS, SPIRITS, MONSTERS, AND (URBAN) LEGENDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD!

That's right.  This year we are traveling the Dark Side (They have cookies, you know) of the spookable and creepsters that haunt our imaginations.

We will journey the Orient, the native tribes of America, and other places to see what crawls out of the cracks to eat us, kill us, and all around scares the living daylights out fo us..  Heh Heh Heh!



A/N:  A blanket warning for those who don't like gore.  Most of my A to Z posts will feature some type of death, gore, mutilation, and other such creepy icky stuff.  So, if you're not into that sort of thing, please skip my posts.