What Horror Stories Send Chills Down Your Spine?

I had a childhood friend who died a really horrible death, but I never expected that something even more terrifying was still to come… Back then there were five of us kids in total, playing over by the railroad tracks.

That time, somehow or other, his leg got stuck in the track.

At first we didn’t think much of it. Then he found he couldn’t pull his leg out no matter what, and he panicked a little and started bawling.

I was the oldest back then and had more of a mind of my own, so I yelled at two of the kids to run and get an adult, fast.

Then another kid, one of the stronger ones, and I pulled at my friend’s leg with all our might.

After maybe ten-some minutes, the blast of a train whistle scared the souls right out of us. My head went buzz, and I thought, it’s over. I remember my pant legs got wet right then and there.

My friend with the stuck leg stopped crying too. He just froze there, completely dumbstruck.

I slapped him across the face, and only then did he snap out of it.

“Fuck, pull, hurry! Shit!” Seeing this, the other kid snapped out of it too and used every ounce of strength he’d had since he was nursing. The two of us went red in the face from straining to pull his leg out.

But the train was fast. Before long, we could see it.

And the locomotive was getting bigger and bigger right before our eyes.

I didn’t care about anything else right then. I only wanted to get my friend out.

Suddenly, I noticed something was off! My friend had stopped moving. I looked up at him and found him looking at me too.

He said one thing to me, very seriously.

“Ge, forget it.”

Translator’s note: Ge is “big brother.” Kids call any older boy in the group that; they’re not related.

Then he gave a sudden, hard shove and pushed the two of us out.

Two seconds later, the train roared past.

I sat on the ground and watched helplessly as my friend was smashed to pieces by the train. His blood sprayed into the air like mist.

He was gone in an instant.

I’ll never forget that sight as long as I live.

Afterward, I was seriously ill for a while, so my parents took me away from that place, and we moved somewhere else.

They were afraid it would leave me with a psychological shadow.

Later on, I grew up. On a business trip, I happened to come back to the place where I’d lived as a kid.

Nobody lived there anymore. The houses were all empty, and by the looks of it, they were about to be demolished.

Although I still had to catch a long-distance bus back that night, I felt a bit nostalgic for my childhood.

Besides, this place could be torn down any day now. If I didn’t take a good look at it now, it would be gone.

So I wandered around aimlessly, and somehow or other, I actually got lost in this place where I’d played all the time as a kid.

After walking this way and that, I ended up in front of an especially rundown house.

Just then, a dog suddenly barked behind me. I’d been bitten by a dog when I was little, and I’d had a psychological shadow about them ever since.

The moment that dog barked, my legs went weak. Without even thinking, I ducked into the house and shut the door.

Shutting it was no big deal. It was only after it was shut that I realized there was no light inside. It was pitch-black in there.

The dog stopped barking, and I started to calm down.

The house was gloomy and a bit cold. It felt pretty creepy. I silently counted to ten in my head, thinking I’d go out again once the dog had wandered off.

Okay! I reached out and pulled the door.

Fuck! My hair stood on end! The door was locked tight… It felt like someone had dumped a basin of cold water on me. I went cold from head to toe.

Damn it, nobody had lived around here for ages, and it was about to get dark. If I got locked in here, that would be way too scary.

I fought with the door again, even kicked it hard a few times, but I couldn’t get it open.

With no other choice, I took my phone out of my pocket and used its light to look the place over.

This was a living room, and over there was a bedroom.

Oh, right! This was the ground floor, so there had to be a yard! Couldn’t I just go out the back door?

With that in mind, I used the phone’s weak light to feel my way.

I headed further inside.

I pushed open the door of the room closest to me. The wooden door had gone moldy long ago, and the smell of mildew made my nose itch.

I figured the hinges had rusted too, because the door creaked as I pushed it.

Once the door was open, I went in, shone my phone around, and found it was a bedroom.

I have no idea where the fuck my curiosity came from, but I walked over to the bed.

There was a nightstand over there. I saw something on it, so I shone my phone on it without a second thought.

That one look nearly scared me to death.

On it was a photo of a child.

That child was my childhood friend, the one killed by the train.

He’d died right before my eyes! My blood froze in an instant.

My legs couldn’t take a single step.

I just stood there in a daze, unable to move at all.

I don’t know how long it was before a rush of hot blood surged up into my chest.

When I came back to myself, I had only one thought in my head: run! That was also when I realized I’d wet my pants. It was the second time in my whole life I’d wet my pants.

Of course, I didn’t have time to care about that. I turned and ran.

But with a thud, I tripped over who knows what and slammed hard onto the floor. My phone went flying straight under the bed.

That moment was probably the closest I’ve ever come in my life to being scared to death.

In a derelict residential area, I’d been locked inside a rundown house where nobody lived.

And this house didn’t belong to just anyone. It belonged to my childhood friend, the one who died horribly on the railroad tracks.

And me, right then, I’d meant to run away, but I’d tripped over something and slammed hard onto the floor.

Outside, it was already completely dark. My only source of light, my phone, had now gone flying under the bed.

Should I get it or not?

Not get it?

If I didn’t get it, there was no way I’d find my way out in the pitch-dark.

Get it?

If I did, well, this house was seriously strange right now. Who knew what was under that bed?

I’d seen a few horror movies, after all.

Just as I was hesitating, fuck, the phone rang.

At a time like this, the only person who’d come looking for me had to be my boss at work. No doubt about it.

That moron of a boss of mine, no ability to speak of, but his temper was huge.

What could I do? I couldn’t go smashing my own rice bowl. Starved to death or scared to death, dead is dead. By comparison, my boss was still a bit scarier.

So I gritted my teeth, and to make myself focus, I even slapped myself hard across the face.

After a deep breath, I slowly started reaching under the bed. My eyes were shut the whole time. I thought, fuck it, I don’t care what’s under this bed. If I keep my eyes closed and don’t look at you, how are you going to scare me?

After feeling around a while, I actually got hold of my phone. Too bad that by the time I pulled it out, the call had already ended.

Sigh, there was no avoiding another good chewing-out. Whatever, I’d explain to my boss once I got out.

Just as I was about to get up, I saw that something seemed to be stuck to the phone.

I turned the phone over. Stuck on it was a sticker.

I remembered this sticker so well I’d never forget it even if I died.

It was the most precious sticker out of all the ones we collected back then.

The kind you could trade at the corner store for at least one Transformer.

I was the one who drew this sticker back then. But I’d gotten into a fight with that friend, the one who died so horribly, and beaten him until he cried.

I was afraid he’d tell his parents, so I gave him this sticker.

When I saw the sticker, I understood completely.

My walking into this house was definitely no accident.

That bark from the dog, the locked front door, and this sticker.

A resentful ghost had come for revenge.

I’d lived my whole life open and aboveboard. I’d never done anything to weigh on my conscience. Who would have thought something like this would happen to me?

But fine. Making a few thousand yuan a month and still getting chewed out by my boss, a life like that was worse than being dead.

At that thought, I actually stopped being scared.

It was no big deal. If he wanted to claim my life, let him claim it. It wasn’t much of a life anyway. If he wanted it, he could have it. I muttered, “Back then, I wasn’t the one who pushed you onto the tracks. You weren’t careful. How can you pin that on me?”

“You stinky brat, if you can’t afford to lose, don’t play. You got yourself stuck in there. How’s that on me?”

“You were a sore loser ever since we were little, I knew it. When we fought back then, we agreed whoever lost wouldn’t cry. In the end, I had to hand that sticker over to you, and then my dad beat me when I got home.”

“You mutt, if you’re going to kill me or carve me up, go ahead. Your dage for a day, your dage for life. When has laozi ever been afraid of you?! Come on! Come at me! You ghost thing!”

Translator’s note: Dage is “eldest brother,” here the kid boss of their little group. Laozi, “your old man,” is just swaggering slang for “me.”

But no matter how much I hollered, there was no response at all, and nothing leaped out either.

The whole house was nothing but darkness.

Not a sound, not one thing out of the ordinary.

As time ticked by, I started to half believe it, half doubt it.

“So, if you, uh, don’t have anything else going on today, I’ll just head out first, okay?”

I waited a long time. Still no response. “For real, I’m actually leaving, all right?!” Still no response.

So I inched along in tiny steps, little by little, until I finally made it to the front door.

I took a deep breath.

Gave the door a push.

With a creak, the door actually opened?

I just stood there stunned. Of course, not for long. I hurried out.

I jogged the whole way out of the demolition area.

Only when I saw a brightly lit snack street did I bend over and catch my breath.

I looked back at the demolition area. It was pitch-black. I couldn’t make out anything anymore.

Maybe I was overthinking it. The door must have just jammed because it was so old.

I’d really scared myself. I shook my head with a laugh, thinking my jumpiness was kind of funny.

Just then, another call came in. That same damned boss.

Sigh, I picked up quickly, ready to explain what had happened just now.

But before I could even start, the boss spoke in a rush.

“Ai, you little brat, you scared me to death!! As long as you’re okay, as long as you’re okay!!”

“Huh? Boss, what happened?”

“You don’t know? The bus you were taking today crashed and went into the water! Everyone died. Not a single survivor.”

“Holy shit, that bad?”

“Forget it, let’s not talk about it. You’re getting a raise this month. Take a few days off. You scared the hell out of me.” With that, the boss hung up.

I put down the phone and thought, thank goodness I got trapped in that old house and missed that bus.

Otherwise, my little life would have been over.

Suddenly, it was as though something hit me.

I picked up the phone and turned it over.

The sticker was still there.

The sticker my childhood friend and I had once fought over.

I looked toward the demolition area. It was pitch-black over there.

My feelings were complicated.

“Thanks, xiongdi. I’ll live a good life.”

Translator’s note: Xiongdi is “brother,” what guys call a close buddy.

People were coming and going all around me.

Toward that empty place where no one was, I bowed.