Monthly Archives: November 2011

The Red Room

With the advent of the internet, spirits and ghosts have found their way onto the computer screen, haunting those who perhaps typed in the wrong internet URL. Although perhaps not that surprising, seeing as supernatural ghost activity, according to legend, may affect electricity, televisions, and other modern innovations, a difference with ghosts on the internet is that they are linked to specific sites, not a specific location or area. With this in mind, my friend sent me a link which I did not click, especially after he told me a ghost story of the internet.

Being into Japanese culture and taking interest in horror (“It’s just so interesting!”), he told me the legend of the ‘Red Room’.

“…After classes had ended for that day, two young boys, around their early teens, decided to just hang out and talk. After chatting about school, their classes, their grades, the girls they like, and the latest computer games, the topic finally landed on what they did on the internet. To this question, one boy pipes up and asks if the other had ever heard of the internet pop-up ad that annoyed the user with the question “Do you like – ?” The other boy answered with a shake of his head. The first boy then continues with the story, promptly saying that supposedly, if people closed the pop-up ad, a ghost would cause the person to die. A little spooked out, the other boy changes the topic and the chatting continues until one boy gets called by his mother and is asked to go home for dinner. Later online, the two friends talk online through a messaging program and the boy who had told the story typed in “Dude, I’m going to try searching about the pop-up ad.” The other friend asked if he had found anything but the boy didn’t answer. Assuming he was busy reading up about the story, this friend decided to do some searching of his own. However, despite all his search efforts using every phrase and reading several forums, he could not find anything about pop-up ad. He decided to believe that his friend just made the whole thing up and just wanted to scare him. As he was giving up his search, an extra window pops up with one of those annoying voices. Only this one played a sort of garbled childlike voice asking “Do you like -?” Thinking that it was just his friend messing with him, the boy clicked the ‘x’ which closed the ad. After a few seconds or so, the pop up reappears, asking the same question, “Do you like – ?” Again closing the ad did no good. It kept popping up to his dismay. The childish voice kept changing bit by bit each time until finally the question lengthened by one word. “Do you like red?” The boy continued to close the pop-up until the final message is spit out by a normal childlike girl’s voice, “Do you like the red room?” After this final message appeared, another pop-up window displays a website with a list of names. Not knowing what this was for, the boy scanned the list and found the name of his friend at the bottom. He then feels another presence in the room behind him and turns around, but it is too late.

The next morning at school, there’s a rumor that the pair of friends had suicide, both of them covering the walls and floors in their rooms with their own dark red blood. Upon examination, all they found was a website with a list of names where both their names are displayed at the end of a long list.”

The ghost story ended here, but the friend had told me that this story was also connected to a real life murder of a twelve year old Japanese girl, dubbed the Sasebo slashing. Apparently someone had made an animation of this story and the eleven year old classmate, who had slashed this girl’s throat and arms with a knife, was obsessed with this animation. I was scared to say the least and when he sent me the link to the animation later that night, I did not dare click on it or close the window. I simply turned off my computer.

Turnbull Canyon

Back home, there is a famous area among the mountains called Turnbull Canyon. There are quite a few houses among the main roads, but there are also several houses and areas down winding dirt roads that are usually hidden from view from the trees. I know, I’ve been there. First some background information should be established. The area is well known for its racing drifting accidents as well as its housing of a Satanic cult, complete with ritualistic human sacrifices. These events weren’t just rumors as they often made the pages of the newspaper, so I decided to ask a friend who lived on Turnbull Canyon Road about the different incidents that’s happened there and whether anything weird has happened to him over the years.

“… Ever since I can remember, there’s been tons of accidental deaths in the area. Car crashes, animal attacks, fire victims, and even a plane crash once. Once in awhile, the police find an unidentified body, a John Doe. Everyone knows that famous story of some cultists murdering a teenage girl. She was tied to the back of a car and they just sped off. It was said she was dragged for miles before they finally left the body on Turnbull Canyon Road. I had nightmares about it for years. I know you’re asking for ghost stories, but all these events, they’re connected to each other. Back in the hills there’s many different places that have been explored. Among the findings, its reported that there are Hell’s gates back somewhere in the mountains. In the middle of nowhere, there are old rusted gates that have worn down stone pillars on either side. Beyond it is just some dirt road that leads somewhere out of sight, but there’s always an eerie feeling and silence about the place that makes people want to get out of there. It’s said that the place beyond the gates could be a source of the deaths in the area. As you might’ve guessed, ghost stories circulate because of it too. Turnbull is just a scary place. There’s supposed to be a rundown insane asylum back here too where after one patient hung himself, the other patients started following suit, even if they had been getting better. The staff simply had to get rid of all the sheets and everything so that they wouldn’t have access to anything which they could use to harm themselves. Well, after this rundown asylum closed, there’s been a lot of sightings of people hung by their necks, dangling from the branches of the trees. I wouldn’t say it’s true, but I think I saw it myself. I was driving down Turnbull at night with a few of my friends, and to get to my house, I just drove down a super winding road. On one side was basically a slope where you could see a few houses at the top, and on the other side are trees that block your view. I was just driving along, blasting music, when I spotted something in the window of the houses. The light was on in the window, but the curtains or whatever was closed. A shadow of a person STOOD at the window, looking out. You couldn’t see the person, so it was just a shadow. I quickly pointed it out to my friends. Only one of them said they saw the same thing I did, and the rest of them were telling me that it was nothing. It really creeped me out so I turned the music up even more as I continued to drive along Turnbull. I continuously scanned my surroundings looking out for anything else. I started looking at the trees. Huge mistake. I swear I see a body hanging from a tree. Arms limp, face contorted, feet dangling in the air like twenty feet off the ground. I couldn’t believe it, I almost swerved off the road! I looked again, desperately trying to confirm that I was just imagining things. Nope, no body. However, by this time, my friends were quiet too. They looked scared and I asked them if they saw it too, without expressly saying the body from the tree. A few of them nodded. After hesitating a little, I continued driving down the road as fast as I could until I reached my house.”

After hearing the tales and the hype of Turnbull Canyon, I cannot say that I was not scared. I do believe this friend’s story as I had actually been there. I was one of the friends who saw the body. Although I still do not know whether I really believe what I saw, I do still avoid that road today. Whenever I go over to this particular friend’s house, I take a different route from the one that we had taken that night.

Ghost Neighbor in King Country

“My friend Sarah, she used to live in this town called King Country, it’s right near Valencia. It’s in Santa Clarita, which is like one of the most haunted places in California. Anyway she used to live in this like, pretty big house with her little sister and her parents, and they had these like weird next-door neighbors. They were like this old couple, and the one girl’s name was Diana. She was like this old woman that was kind of crazy and like had, her husband was weird too. But she like oddly became obsessed with Sarah’s family. Like found ways to break into their house to like, try to like invite them over and when like, the mom would be gone, Sarah’s mom didn’t want them staying at home anymore because like, or by themselves because this girl would come around the back. She’d knock on the front door and they wouldn’t answer, and then she would come around the back to their house and bang on the window and be like “I SEE YOU, I SEE YOU, OPEN UP THIS DOOR!” And like, I know, creepy. She would try to like, take their…not like steal their stuff but like take their jewelry and invite Sarah and Hannah, her little sister, into her house a lot. Um, and like try to just…she was just really really weird and it kind of started freaking them out and Sarah’s mom was like, “you’re not allowed over their house anymore and she’s not allowed over here.” So anyway like, a couple months later like after she’s been weird and everything’s gone crazy. She uh, she goes and they see a bunch of ambulances at the house and they don’t know what’s going on. The husband died, and that was you know really sad. But then it just became the crazy old lady doing more crazy things now that her husband was dead. And then a couple months later she passed away. There were more ambulances and everything. Then one night, before anyone moved into that house, it was like completely vacant and everything. Sarah could swear that she would see lights on. But then, you know her mom was like no you’re crazy, whatever. And there was one day and I was over this day. It was really freaking scary. I wanna say we were like 7 or 8. Um… (sigh) We were outside playing and all of a sudden we saw the garage light turn on in this house that had been vacant for like a really long time. The garage light turned on and we all stopped and were like that’s really creepy. We had also known how weird this lady was. So then we were like whatever, but then we hear music start and we like kind of see shadows, cause you know how in some garages there are like those windows that you can like see into people’s garages. So we hear music start and we see shadows dancing, which was really freaking creepy. And so we’re all like oh my God oh my God oh my God. Then we went over and went to go peek in a window, but it all stopped and went black. So then we started running away, and as we were running down the street, um, Sarah felt something push her. And turned to us and was like, “you guys why did you just push me?” And we were like “Sarah we didn’t we’re right next to you!” And she had a huge handprint on her back of somebody who like pushed her. Not even joking this is like a true story. Terrified the crap out of me. We went home and told her mom and her mom freaked out. Here her daughter had this huge handprint on her back and we heard footsteps behind us but we thought it was just us because it was three kids running down the street. But then Sarah got pushed and there was a huge mark on her back.”

 

GG actually experienced this story for herself, so that gives it a unique point of view. GG does not totally believe in ghosts, but she does admit she has had some experiences that make her question her disbelief. She told the story with passion and intensity in her hand movements, leading me to believe that this story is very real to her. This story would count as a legend because it occurred in the real world but its truth is unknown.

This story has several common motifs of ghost stories. It includes a ghostly light. GG said that her friend Sarah often saw a garage light turn on in the vacant house after the two old neighbors passed away. She also explains that, as they got closer to the house, the light that was on went out. Lights are a common motif throughout ghost stories in almost all cultures. Another motif in this story is the big, haunted house. GG explains that the neighborhood Sarah lived in was one of the most haunted places in the city, and the houses were big and scary. Haunted houses are a common element in ghost stories. One more motif in this story is ghost hands or handprints. The ghost supposedly pushes the girl away and leaves a handprint on her back. The fact that the ghost left a mark seems like it would be indisputable evidence.

GG puts the story into context by beginning the story with an explanation of why the old lady was strange. By telling me that she was a creepy neighbor before her death, it helps explain why she may have been creepy in the afterlife. The woman may be exacting revenge on the little kids for disturbing them in the afterlife by going on her property. She said the music and dancing stop when they get closer. The ghost could be upset that they interrupted them and got her revenge by pushing them away. This story is important to GG because it helped form her childhood beliefs of the afterlife.

The White Lady of Durand-Eastman Park

“I know a story from back in Rochester that everyone told about the white lady. Years and years ago, I guess in the 1800s some time, there was a woman who supposedly lived in the area where Durand-Eastman Park is now.  And she had a daughter and her daughter disappeared and she was convinced that somebody had murdered her daughter, a farmer that lived nearby. So she would search with her two German Shepards over and over and over again but she never found her daughter or any trace of her daughter. So, the story is that she jumped off a cliff and died and her dogs did the same because they missed her so much, and that her and her dogs roam Durand-Eastman Park to this day. And if you, because there was a road up there where when you were younger it was the make-out point, you would go up there and hang out in a car. If you hang out on the side of Durand-Eastman Park it’s been rumored to say that she will find you, she’ll be on top of your car, and she’ll try to get in and kill the guy cause she hates all men, because she believes her daughter was raped and murdered by a man.”

 

DL heard this story when she was growing up in Rochester, New York. She thinks she heard it from one of her friends in grade school. She said she does not necessarily believe in this story, but she does not deny all ghost belief. She said that she doesn’t know how she feels, but “something has to happen to our spirits when we die.”  This is an example of a legend because it occurs in the real world but its truth is unknown.

This story has many common motifs of ghost stories. One motif evident is the idea of a ghostly mother. Many times, ghosts are mothers who wander the living world searching for their children or trying to take care of them. In this story, the ghost is looking for her daughter. The motif of unfinished business is also present. The mother never found her daughter while she was alive, so she came back after her death to continue search for them. The most notable motif in this story is the motif of revenge. The woman believes the male farmer that lived near to them raped and murdered her daughter, so in the afterlife she seeks revenge on men. The story says that she gets inside of cars parked near Durand-Eastman Park where couples hang out to exact revenge on the men inside of them. She wants revenge against all living men for what one man did to her daughter while she was alive. The fact that her nickname is the white lady parallels Japanese ghost beliefs; Japanese ghosts, or Yurei, wear all-white clothing.

This story was probably used as a fun way to scare the teenagers in the area who would spend time in Durand-Eastman Park. It also serves as somewhat of a warning that teenagers trying to take advantage of “make-out point” should be careful of what they may find. In a more general sense, the story can be taken as a reminder to men that they need to respect women. A man disrespected the ghost’s daughter, and for that, all men must pay. The white lady is said to protect women in the park from men who try to harm them.

Senter Road Haunted House

Travis: So what ghost story are you going to tell me today?

Lina: Ummm about the haunted house on Senter Road.

Travis: What does the house look like?

Lina: It’s a one story house with a white gate, big round rocks on the front yard, and a blue roof.

Travis: So what happened at the house?

Lina: Okay. So I heard at the house three people were murdered and someone committed suicide at the house.

Travis: Where did you hear this?

Lina: I don’t really remember. I heard about it so long ago, but everyone knows about it. So anyways, people they move in and house after only living at the house for a few weeks. One story I heard… ummm that house, they were trying to sell it right. So this guy bought the house because it was really cheap and he had no idea why, but he            bought it anyways and when he got into the house he moved everything in.

Travis: Did he live alone?

Lina: Yeah. Everything was normal. Everything was good, until he went to sleep one night and ummm in the middle of the night he woke up because something was pulling on his leg. And it pulled him out of bed and it was like yelling, screaming in his ear. Itwas just screaming at him saying get the hell out of here and stuff. Yeah, it pulled himout of his bed and said, “This is my room. This is where I belong. Get the hell out of here.” Stuff like that. So afterwards the man moved everything out and left. That house, no one wanted to buy it anymore because they heard of the story. And umm they got three rocks I think and put it in the front to basically hold down the spirit or control it. And its just three rocks equally distributed to control the spirit there. Yeah… and every year, kids go to the house to see if they can find the ghost. Most kids are too scared to go inside though. Ummm… one year in Halloween there was a sign on the door that said, “Get the fuck out of my house”. And that’s what I know about the haunted house on Senter Road.”

This ghost story carries a very important lesson. When buying items which have been owned by others, find out the history of the item; especially if the offer given is particularly unusual.  Not only does this ghost story entail a very important lesson, but it also tells a little bit about the culture of the people who live around area. The people who live around the area are mostly Asian and are very superstitious. The local communities belief in ghost and customs are revealed when they placed three rocks behind the gates of the house to keep the spirit contained. However, another side of the community can be seen through the sign on the door. With the house being near many schools where academic performance is low and many students are troublesome, there is a disregard for private property, local belief, and vandalism.

Living near the house, I passed it everyday as I went to school. Growing up in the area it’s nearly impossible not to hear about it or talk about it at least once. It’s a little landmark which everyone knows about. From the outside it looks like a very nice, maintained, regular house, but has not been inhabited for over eight years. I’ve never gone inside the house, but I have pasted it many times and every time I pass the house, I get a very… eerie feeling.