“There is this story where there is this girl in elementary school.  She is the favorite of all of the teachers and is a perfect student and basically just has this perfect life.  You know that kind of kid, that super bitchy girl that always sits in the front row and answers every question? *Laughs*  Yeah, so basically  then this new girl comes to the school and becomes everyone’s favorite kid.  So at first it’s like yeah ok whatever no big deal, but then that first bitchy girl starts to get really jealous.  Then one night the new kid is staying late to clean the classroom for her teacher or something and the first bitch comes in and says to the new kid, “oh I need to show you something, come to the roof” or something like that.  So the two girls go up to the roof and go stand at the ledge on the roof.  I mean so yeah, now you know something bad is gonna happen right? *Laughs*  And so then the new girl is like “wait why did you tell me to come up here, I don’t see anything” and then all of a sudden the first girl pushes the new kid off the roof.  So she hits the ground head-first and she dies, obviously, and her head like completely splatters all over the ground or whatever. So then everybody hears about this on the news, and like they are sad or whatever, but then they just forget about it and the first bitchy girl becomes everyone’s favorite again.     So she’s all happy and shit and she’s like no big deal I’m a murderer but everyone loves me. *Laughs*  So but then one night she is staying late at school to work on a project and she hears this continuous noise or whatever like this *knocks three times on table* and she hears the voice of the girl that she killed.  So she gets super scared and runs into the bathroom and goes into the last stall.  And so she’s all scared and shit, standing in the stall, but she doesn’t hear the noise anymore.  But then all of a sudden she hears a knocking like farther away, like on the first stall, and she hears the dead girl’s voice saying like “where are you?”  So she is super freaked out and then she hears the knocking coming closer, like coming towards the last stall that she is in.  And then the noise stops, but then all of a sudden there is a ton of knocking on the last stall that the girl is in *knocks five times on the table, loudly* and she hears the dead girl say “I found you!”  And then the stall door opens and the girl that got killed is right there, but she is walking on her head.  Because like she is on her head and it’s all bloody since she died like that, you know?  I don’t know, that shit freaked me out.”

Christie told me that she had heard this stories many times before, always with the same sequence of events and details, although she told me she might be forgetting something since she hasn’t heard it in awhile.  Christie is a very relaxed person in general, and this came through during her retelling of this story.  She maintained a lackadaisical attitude up until the very end, when the murdered girl in the story says, “I found you!”  At this point, Christie’s eyes got very wide, and she started speaking more quickly.  I think this was due to the fact that she found the story scary when it was told to her, and she wanted me to be similarly scared by the end.  When I asked Christie what she thought the story meant, she simply laughed and said “I mean come on, it’s just like us little Japanese kids scaring each other at sleepovers and shit like that.  It doesn’t mean anything.”  When I asked Christie why she thought multiple people had told her this story, meaning that it is at least a somewhat popular ghost story, she told me “well you know, it’s just scary or whatever.  This girl gets fucking killed because some other bitch wants to be the teacher’s pet.  I guess it’s just sort of something we could all relate to in school because all Asian kids know what it’s like to have people fighting to be the teacher’s favorites.  So I don’t know it’s just like fucking creepy to think about this girl walking on her bloody head or whatever in a dark bathroom, you know?  That’s super sick.”

Christie gave me an ideal ghost story.  As she described, this was relatable to her and her peers, which gave the story more relevance.  Additionally, this story is about a girl who dies a tragic, untimely death and has come back as a ghost to seek vengeance.  Because of the setting of the creepy bathroom, the knocking against the stalls, and the things the dead girl was saying, this story becomes far more scary.  To top it off, the image of a dead little girl walking on her bloody head is undeniably an unpleasant image.

I was only able to find this story on one blog, with just a simple retelling of the story.  There were some differences however, with the two girls actually being best friends who were quite competitive, with the less successful friend killing the other.  Additionally, the scene in the bathroom took place in the school hallway instead.

“Ghost Stories: Japanese School Girls.” Journey of Dawn. Blogstpot, 25 Feb. 2011. Web. 08 Nov. 2011. <http://m-mellow.blogspot.com/2011/02/ghost-stories-japanese-school-girl.html>.

“Ok so there is this husband and wife and a kid, but the wife died so the husband hired a nanny.  She took care of the kid because the dad had to work and didn’t want to take care of him.  You know, he was kind of a troublemaker, but was just being a normal kid, but the nanny hated him.  Actually, she just hated kids in general, so I’m not really sure why she was a nanny.  But anyway, one day the kid was being really rowdy or something and the nanny just couldn’t take it anymore, so she drowns the kid.  So then the dad comes home and the nanny just makes up some excuse where she just says that she’s innocent.  So the dad is sad and like wishes that he had spent more time with his kid and stuff and they have a nice funeral.  The nanny keeps working for the dad, but I guess she is more of a house cleaner now or something because she killed the only kid she had to take care of, and that’s what nannies do, right?  Well ok so anyway, one day she is working and she keeps feeling this like heaviness on her shoulders, like pulling her down.  And she really has no idea what is going on, but it keeps happening for a couple of days.  And then one day she stays really late, and the husband comes back and sees that the nanny is in pain.  So he asks what’s wrong and she says she knows something is wrong but she’s not sure what is going on.  So he tells her that she had better go home and get some rest.  So she goes home and she goes into the bathroom to take a bath and she looks into the mirror and she sees the kid she killed hanging onto her shoulders and that was the heaviness she had been feeling.”

Yun Hwa is from Korea and told me that she had heard this story from two people and she thinks she remembers reading it in a book when she was younger.  She explained that this story was told less as a “typical sleepover story where everyone screams” but more like “oh my god can you believe that this actually happened?”  Yun Hwa isn’t sure if she believes this story to be true, but she told me that she thinks it could be true because “that’s just so terrible to think about a nanny killing a kid, and if that really did happen, she would probably be haunted.”  She told the story with an even tone, and when she was finished she gave me a very grave look.

This was an interesting story because it seemed that Yun Hwa was not trying to get a reaction out of me, but was telling it to me in terms of morality.  It was clear through the words she said and the tone she used that there seemed to be a lesson in this, and that my reaction should be to think how terrible it was that a child was killed after his mother died and the father wouldn’t take the time to care for him.  When she revealed that the child was hanging around the nanny’s neck, she indicated that she felt the nanny got what she deserved, through her facial expression and tone.  This is a very clear instance of a “haunting” wherein someone who has committed a terrible crime is confronted with what they have done in the form of a ghost or spirit.  Although I was not able to find this story from any other source, I feel that it exemplifies the kind of ghost story that has moral underpinnings and speaks to larger issues, such as abandonment of children, wrongful deaths, and consequences for sins committed.

“When I was very little my nanny used to tell me scary stories and she always told be that if I don’t go to sleep the time that she wants, scary ghosts will haunt me in my dreams. There was a story, which I remember now because it was very scary. One night I didn’t want to go to sleep so she told me that she has to tell me a story about a family where she used to live. She cam from a village that is located at the southern part of Turkey called Adana. It is one of the biggest cities in Turkey but she used to live in a village near Adana. There are many small villages around Adana because all most of the countries agriculture is made there. She started to tell me how the village looks but I don’t remember anything about the village. I just know that there was a tree with full of robes that tied to its branches. She said that everyone knew that tree because it is very famous in the village. So whenever someone visits that village they tie a robe on that tree’s branch. When I first heard of this tradition I asked her if she could take me there because I also wanted to tie a robe on that tree. She said that this is not a tree that you just go and make a wish; there is a story for it. I was very nervous because she was acting weird and I new that there was a scary part of this story. The lights were off because her aim was to make me go to sleep, but it was impossible for me to sleep because I was very nervous about the story. So she started her story but very unusual she did not said ‘once upon a time’. I had a feeling that this story may be true. She started with ‘ long time ago’ and she continued ‘there was a family with 7 children. Most of them were girls and they had a dog. They were working in the agriculture that’s why they had a dog to protect them. Girls were exactly same as you; they played all they long and when it was time to sleep they didn’t want to go to sleep. They lived in that village where the tree is located. Because it’s a village they didn’t had a big house they only had a small house so most of the girls slept together. One night when they were trying to go to sleep one of the sisters wished that they never had to sleep. And they fall asleep. When they woke up they tried to live their regular life but they found that that everything has changed! Their parents no longer exist. Currency of the money has changed, machines everything. And everyone was looking at them very strangely. They found out that they were sleeping for 700 years! The 7 siblings were sleeping for 700 years! Not only the 7 of them but also their dog was sleeping as well. They found out that they turned into a stone for these years. Couple of years later they have died. Everyone in the village was aware of this family. So when they died they turned that place to a shrine. They call that place the 7 sleepers house. In that village 7 is a very unlucky number. More over they also believe that when ever a children does not want to go to sleep they saw the ghost of the 7 siblings.’ I was in shock because I believed that story and I was afraid that I was going to see the ghosts of the siblings. That night I couldn’t go to sleep. One night I forgot about that story and I didn’t want to go to sleep. And in my dream I saw 7 siblings ghost! You may think it was just a dream but the moment I found out it was dream and I tried to woke up I couldn’t! It was like something tied me to my bed! But I don’t believe in ghosts so I get it over with very quickly. I was very nervous about learning if that story was real so I made a couple of researches. And I found out that there is the 7 sleepers house and there is the tree with full of robes! I learned that everyone goes there and ties a robe about the things that they don’t want it to become real. So its like the opposite of wishing and in that village they believe in the ghosts of the 7 sleepers. Also when they hear the dog bark they say that ‘the ghost of the 7sleepers dog has arrived’. For me it was really scary when I was little and sometimes I think about the night when I saw the ghosts of 7 siblings in my dream and believe that maybe they could have come. I was very relieved that I learned the story exists but I’m not sure to believe this or not. I just know that there is a village that they think they are haunted by that 7 siblings and dogs spirits.”

My idea about this story is that, I also heard about the 7 sleepers and they’re dogs. I personally don’t believe in 7 sleepers but I can understand her thoughts about this story because she was very young when she learned about this story and her nanny tried to scare her. Her nannies aim was to make R. go to sleep. She may have been affected by the story, which can be the reason for her to see the 7 siblings in her dream. She also talks about the sleep paralysis which is known in Turkey and some people sees doctors because of what they have faced with when they tried to wake up in the morning. If I were living in that village in Adana, I would probably be the one of the believers of this story.

 “So, um about two years ago I would say I decided to have a sleepover at my friend Jenny’s house.  Jenny had always told me her house was haunted but I never believed her cause I am not the kind of person who believes in ghosts.  Wait, I guess not her whole house just the living room.  So to test the theory we decided to sleep in the living room that night instead of her bedroom. So we went to bed and there was a cello in the room.  Her little brother played the cello.  And so we went to bed and woke up at about 2am I would say, to the music of a cello and we freaked out obviously, but we figured it must just be in our minds so we went back to bed.  About two hours later we woke up to the sound of the cello again, same sound, same rhythm.  That time we freaked out even more and literally stayed up the rest of the night because we were so scared. It had to have been a ghost.  The whole entire next day weird stuff was happening.  Doors were opening and closing, even sliding doors, which like wind, cannot affect.  Adding to that, the sound of the cello was in the back of my mind the whole day.  When Jenny’s dad got home from work that night we told him our whole story and he didn’t really believe us but he did tell us what happened to the previous owners of the house.  I guess the dad to a family of five who used to live in the house-committed suicide in the living room.  I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or what, but I do know that the sound of a cello will always haunt me.”   

My roommate Mahsaw told me this story about her friend Jenny’s house in Cleveland, Ohio.  When I first asked Mahsaw if she knew of any good ghosts stories or personal experiences I honestly did not expect her to have one.  Mahsaw is a biology and chemistry double major and is very much so into explaining the world through science.  Ghosts on the other hand are phenomena that are somewhat unexplainable.  Although this experience happened two years ago, when Mahsaw was a high school senior, she still believes that it was a spirit who was playing the cello.  It is interesting that even after reflecting on the situation a scientist chooses to explain her experience with a ghostly encounter rather than a more rational justification.

The haunting may have been heightened by the fact that the girls believed they were sleeping in a haunted room and therefore searching for any unexplained activity to validate their theory.  However, some common reasons for ghosts are unresolved business or dissatisfaction with things that happened while living.  When someone commits suicide, like the previous owner of Jenny’s house, it is because they are unhappy with the life he or she is living.  For this reason, the deceased person may return as a ghost in order to resolve issues before being able to rest.  Also, it is common for ghosts to remain in the homes they lived in because this is where they spent a majority of their time and there are strong emotions associated with a home.  I believe that the haunting was real for these reasons.  It makes sense for a father who committed suicide to stay around in order to fulfill his duties of watching his house and trying to get peace before passing on to the other side.