we used to haunt haunted houses and my friend once YELLED at a ghost

Okay so this was like 5 years ago when I was in college and me and two of my friends were DEEP into haunted spots.

Not like a normal dare thing (ok maybe a little) but more like... we'd go to famous abandoned houses or known haunted spots and just. Eat. Drink. Sing. Be loud. Hang out.

And if another group showed up to do their little scary dare thing? We'd pull out dry ice or raw meat and scare the absolute shit out of them and watch them freak out LMAO (we cleaned up after ourselves every time btw don't come for me)

We had no girlfriends. No money. Just time and the audacity of being young. This was the PERFECT way to kill a weekend.

And yeah. If you do this kind of stuff enough, eventually you DO see something.

Like bro. I spent all my time reading ghost stories, writing ghost stories, posting ghost stories... and then it happened to ME. The irony. I HATED it.

Okay so today I'm gonna write about one of them.

Summer break, sophomore year. We planned a drinking party at an abandoned house in S prefecture.

This place had EVERY rumor. "The whole family that lived there killed themselves." "A robber murdered the entire household." "The dad went insane and killed and ATE his whole family." Take your pick. Tons of ghost sightings reported.

It was out in the countryside, surrounded by forest, so we figured we could be as loud as we wanted. And hey, if we see a ghost? Bonus.

About an hour drive from my place. Totally ordinary looking two-story house. But like. Surrounded by forest. Middle of the night. Even the trees were asleep. The vibe was SO bad. Like "something could crawl out of any corner and I wouldn't even be surprised" bad.

The place was locally famous but that night? No one but us.

"We can go FERAL in here," we laughed, climbing in through a broken window.

Inside was way cleaner than we expected. Middle of summer but it was cold in there. Weirdly cold. And that sticky summer humidity on top of it made it feel gross.

"Oh? Now I'm kinda hyped," said Y, the tall one, grinning.

"Most abandoned houses get trashed by idiots turning them into hangout spots but this one's spotless. Maybe everyone got too scared to even make a mess LMAO"

Y kept looking around.

"Nah it's just too far from town to be a hangout," said A, the brown-haired one.

"Whatever. Let's look around fast and start drinking," I said, flicking on my flashlight and taking the lead.

We'd come in through the kitchen. Went through the bathroom, toilet, tatami room, living room, stairs, bedroom, kids' room... roughly in that order. Nothing. Nothing at all.

*(guess we're striking out on ghosts AGAIN)*

So I finally went to open the door to the living room, which was the biggest room and where we were gonna start drinking.

The SECOND my hand touched the door.

Chills. Cold sweat everywhere. Like the temperature dropped 10 degrees in one second. Something in my gut was screaming DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR.

But.

"What are you doing? Just open it," A said, and I opened it.

And.

In the middle of the living room.

A little boy. Sitting alone.

*(at this hour... in this place... a kid this small... by himself?...... he wasn't there a minute ago??)*

Not of this world. Obviously.

The boy looked at us, frozen in the doorway, and smiled. And with that smile still on his face, he started walking toward us. Slowly.

And the way he was walking. Was not normal.

With every step.

His body was falling apart.

Skin peeling off.

Blood dripping.

Flesh tearing.

Organs spilling out.

And through all of it. That bright smile. Still coming.

I was frozen solid. Couldn't move a finger.

And right when I thought I was genuinely about to lose my mind. A shoved past me. Walked FORWARD. And.

"YO THAT'S LAME AS HELL. DO IT AGAIN!"

HE YELLED AT THE GHOST.

AT THE GHOST.

The little boy, having just been scolded apparently, dropped the smile. Made this sad face. Or maybe more like... troubled? Inconvenienced?? Then disappeared.

The second I could move again I bolted for the exit like a rabbit being chased by hounds. Y blocked me. Escape FAILED.

And so we ended up.

In that exact living room. Where the boy had been sitting.

Drinking.

"Wasn't that FUN?? Think he'll come back?" Y laughing.

"He needs to bring it harder next time, that was weak LMAO" A yelling.

These two are not okay. Something is WRONG with them.

Also nothing else showed up that night.

Side note. A is the kind of guy who openly says "I can watch a snuff film and eat a steak at the same time." Certified freak of freaks. (Honestly he's just stupid. A stupid guy LMAO) So the one time we finally see an actual ghost and it wasn't scary enough for him, he was disappointed the whole night.

---

"Once you see a ghost, you start seeing them more often."

Have you heard that? I don't know if your sixth sense sharpens, or your frequency just syncs up with theirs, or maybe you just start noticing them because you're aware now. But I think it's actually true.

This next story is from a few years back too, same crew, tall Y and brown-haired A. Out of all the spots we hit, this is the FIRST time we ever saw a ghost.

Winter break was right around the corner, freshman year. We were hyped. Decided to go camp at a shrine in F prefecture over the weekend.

The shrine had rumors like "a woman was raped and murdered here" or "a woman was raped and hanged herself out of despair here." Classic haunted-spot material. Pretty famous locally.

We got there around evening. Set up the tent fast and then split up to walk around on our own.

The shrine was OLD. The paint on the torii (those gate pillars in front of Japanese shrines) was basically gone. Barely any houses visible nearby. The loneliness of it was hitting.

*(yeah no wonder this place has rumors)*

I walked circles around the shrine by myself.

After about an hour of the three of us wandering separately, nothing weird had happened. No bad vibes. Nothing.

"Yeah ghosts aren't real," we laughed, and started making curry for dinner.

Cut the meat. Cut the veggies. Rice on. Curry simmering. That's when.

"What are you guys doing?"

Someone spoke to us out of nowhere.

We looked over. A woman. Around our age, maybe a little older. Just. Standing there.

"Huh? What are you up to?" she asked again.

Yeah it startled us for a second but it was like, barely 8pm. A young woman walking alone wasn't weird at that hour. So we snapped back to normal pretty fast.

Y: "Oh, we're camping."

Me: "Making curry for dinner."

A: "Wanna join us if you're cool with it?"

Woman: "Really?"

And she started walking toward us. Slowly. Like. Really slowly.

And that's when I noticed...

[cuts off here]