Naki Hanayome

    Throughout Japan there are many stories,myths, and legends surrounding its most haunted locations. None stranger and more terrifying than the myth surrounding 'Mura No Sairento Yoru' – Village Of The Silent Night. This large now abandoned village is located in a remote forest, isolated and surrounded by the beauty of nature, this village's name was derived from how peaceful and quiet nighttime is there. The history of the village is unclear, but a series of strange events involving a relic that fell from the sky lead its residents to madness. Over time it is believed the villagers made up of men,woman,and even children driven by madness believed to be caused by the relic killed each other off. Though there is no physical evidence the people of the village seemed to vanished in the night on evening. Many are afraid to to mention this place and locals pretend to deny its existence. stories are passed around about people who have stumbled upon the village. These stories include people becoming insane, disappearing , and even few cases of people becoming sick and dieing after visiting this village. All of these stories have driven people to deem this village cursed...The most terrifying stories are about the sightings and encounters with the yurei(ghosts) that now reside in the village...They say these yurei are not of this world, some comparing them to Akuma(demons) as they say these yurei can hurt a physical being. Only very few descriptions of yurei have ever been heard from people who have been deemed insane after visiting the village. These people who are deemed insane after visiting describe these yurei as inhuman, twisted, frightening, and not of this world. A group of a few hardcore American Ghost hunting crews caught wind of these stories and decided to see for themselves if the rumors about the village are true, seeing this as being the pinnacle of their careers. Teaming up they traveled to Japan, daring to step foot into the 'Village Of The Silent Night'. Below is an encounter story #1 with the Onryo(vengeful ghost), Naki Hanayome (The Weeping Bride):

    Wednesday 1:25a.m. - Jared: I have now lost contact with base as my equipment seems to malfunction at random. Sandra and Marcus are exploring the interior of this large shrine on a hill in the north section of village as I wait here on the stone path in front of the shrine. The moon above is bright and luminous, silence and serenity in every direction, only the sound of the winding howling through the trees can be heard. So far there hasn't been any significant paranormal activity besides the strange malfunctioning of the equipment. I can't help but feel even in this peaceful night something about this place is very off, it must be the same feeling that thwarts the locals away. I can see a good portion of the village from up here. I gaze at the dark buildings below, it is surprising to me how a whole village this large can be left untouched and uninhabited. As time passed while I waited for Sandra and Marcus to return I became lost in my thoughts. As I listened to the voice in my head and thought about the myths surrounding this place, another voice entered into the picture...This a shaky female voice whispering the phrase 'Anata atashi o aishitenai....'. This threw me off completely, causing me to snap out of my thoughts and take out my recorder to try to find the source of the voice. I slowly began to walk down the stone path calling out a couple of phrases in Japanese, 'Hello is there anyone here with me now', 'If so what is your name', 'Can you give me a sign of your presence'.

    I felt a chill flow through my body and heard what sounded as a brief ring of a chime, ahead I saw a faint white glowing blur. It was very tall but around the height of a tall human so I thought to my self that this could possibly be a full body apparition. I became excited as my hands trembled to grab my camera, but as soon as I raised my camera to take a picture of the apparition it was gone. I blinked and suddenly it became darker than usual and even the moonlight began to dull. I grabbed my walkie talkie to communicate with Sandra and Markus but there was only static, through the static I heard the whisper 'Anata atashi o aishitenai....' once again, but this time followed by weeping. Soon I felt the world around me phase out in a strange way particularly hard to explain, the hairs on my body stood up as a noticed an unusually tall figure in white with its back turned. Though deep down I was excited by this, the experience actually began to frighten me. Switching on my camcorder I approached the spirit slowly. My hands were shaky, the closer I approached a dreadful sensation became stringer which made me feel a little sick inside. Never on a case and even in some of the most haunted locations in American have I experienced anything like I am experiencing now. Suddenly all sound became absent...The sound of a chime echoed from all around as the spirit then turned revealing itself to me. I never knew true fear till this moment, I couldn't think, react, or anything as I felt helpless and paralyzed in this spirit's presence. Everything has seemed to have slowed down as the entity moved its black lips and in a twisted deep crackling inhuman tone repeating the phrase 'Anata atashi o aishitenai....'. I was scared, my body was horribly shaking, and sweat dripping down my forehead as the spirit started to approach slowly extending its unnaturally long shadowy arms. I dropped the camcorder with most of my equipment and driven by pure survival instinct and fear ran in the opposite direction. Eventually exhausted from running I was in the heart of the village. I was horrified, the thought of being pursued by the spirit twisted my insides into knots...Running into a random house I slammed the door and hid inside the closet. There I was crouched trembling, mentally drained as I tried to recover from the experience, unable to think straight as the image of the spirit imprinted into my head, haunting my thoughts....

Thank you for reading encounter story #1 of my new for fun horror series 'Village Of The Silent Night' inspired mainly from the Fatal Frame games and other aspects of Japanese horror. There may or may not be more of this series as its not one of my main ones but its something I'd like to do every once in a awhile.

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