The Red Room

*The following story is fairly well-known and exists in several different versions.

Late one night, a taxi driver picked up a girl. When he asked her where she was going she replied she was going home.
“Please go straight down this road,” “turn right there,” she instructed him as he drove on. During the journey the driver sometimes gave furtive glances at her through the rear view mirror; the girl had beautiful shiny hair and seemed pretty, although he couldn't see her face clearly because she sat with downcast eyes. He also found her quiet and demure manner attractive.

Before long they reached a lonely, deserted hillside. The girl said, “You will see a house straight ahead.” And sure enough, a small, old cottage emerged from the darkness. The girl got off, and the driver stayed and watched her go into the house. It was odd that a young girl like her should live in such a lonely, old place, seemingly all on her own. He was intrigued and instead of leaving straight away, got out of the car too and crept up to the house, feeling an urge to know more about her and see her face properly. He felt he was behaving improperly but could not help himself.

When he got close, he saw all the curtains were drawn and there was no way to see inside.
He circled around the house a few times but there was no attempt from inside to lift the curtains. He thought if he stayed any longer the girl might notice him, so he nearly gave up and left when the front door caught his eyes. The door had a large keyhole, which looked as though it would work just as fine as a peephole.
He looked through the keyhole; but found, much to his dismay, all he could see was the colour red, and there was no sign of either the girl or any kind of furniture in the room. Now matter how long he kept at it the scenery remained the same.

He gave up looking, but still could not forget about the girl, so he stopped by the small restaurant he'd seen on the way to her house, thinking he could make a few inquiries about her there while having a meal at the same time.
He told the restaurant owner what had happened, even revealing (although he was terribly embarrassed) that he had a peek through the keyhole.
“I looked through the keyhole, but all I could see was something red…I know it wasn't a proper thing to do.”

The owner, hearing that, looked at him strangely and said to him;
“You know that girl… she has some sort of disease and her eyes are both crimson red.”

*Did you understand what the restraunt owner's words meant? :)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Bet that freaking him out.
xD
Anonymous said…
I read a different version of this story, about a hotel where a man is told not to look into a room, and he does out of curiosity and sees a woman in the corner. The next day all he sees is red. He asks the hotel manger and she says that the ghost of a murderer haunts that room, and that they are pale but with red eyes. An interesting scary story! I like the one on the blog better though because its more believable.
Anonymous said…
What did the words mean ?i SOOOO don't understand.
Grey said…
o.O Ahhhhhhhh! It made me jump. I love stories like that....
Anonymous said…
No... I don't really understand.Why? What did the restraunt owner mean??
Anyway, the guy was really rude too.he should respect ppl's privacy...^^
Anonymous said…
-The keyhole the man peeped into was crimson red

-The girl's eyes are crimson red

When the man peeped through the keyhole she was staring right back at him.

*shudder*
Anonymous said…
I've read the similar story set in a hotel but this one is *so* much better =)

Obviously she doesn't blink much though. =)
Anonymous said…
we have the same yarn in our third world hovel. http://www.onlyinph.com/blogs/143-university-aswang-stories
Anonymous said…
I've read the hotel story before this, and it really freaked me out. Well, so did this one anyway, but knowing it's a girl with a disease rather than a ghost makes me sad. Poor creepy red-eyed girl...she could probably use a hug :(

Still, don't think I'd be brave enough to approach her house, I can't even bear to watch the videos or flash on this site. This is my first visit here, and I've been enthralled for a few hours now. Excellent stuff, Saya! Thanks for scaring the pants of me! :D
dialgaX149 said…
O.O That made me jump a bit. Excellent story, Ms. Saya!
Dead. said…
Well done saya, Classic.
Anonymous said…
Excuse me but thats my home ur looking in sir
I might be shy but im gutsy
Neil said…
I hope they can still get together.
iktikn said…
That's why you should respect other peoples privacy.
Anonymous said…
Really what do you expect poor shy girl lives out there and has to take a taxi home. When she gets in she never hears the taxi leave so she decides to look out the lock to see what is happening. The dear was probably frightened to death by the nosy cabi.
Anonymous said…
haha i love how everyone made there own versions of my friend story. XD the hotel one.-Owl
ZixXxy said…
Love this story, never gets old!
Toybox said…
Hahaha, I soon realise what's going to happen
After the restourant guy said; a bit jumpy tho

Well done Ms.Saya, I read your blog n I like it
Interesting, and by the way, can you write something
about kappa?
Anonymous said…
I also read another variation of this story where it takes place in feudal Japan. In this one, a traveling merchant took lodge in another man's house because it was getting dark. He heard giggling in the room next to his so he poked a whole in the wall to take a peek (these were paper walls) and saw a girl in white dancing. He takes a step back and wonder who it was since he never saw her when he arrived at the house. He took a peek again and saw nothing but red so he went back to sleep. The next morning he asked the man about what was the deal with that room and the man explained that his daughter died in that room and she had a peculiar deformity that leaves her with bright red eyes.
Winter_Alice said…
Tee hee...I love this story...
Spectro said…
Dammm you really love and know how to scare us!!
Anonymous said…
Durrhurr albinoism.
Anonymous said…
can someone leave a link with the one with the hotel ?
ohaiadit said…
For me this story is so terror-inducing that now the image of this girl with her wide opened red eyes staring at me from behind my bedroom door creeps up in my mind.
Anonymous said…
@anonymous
http://www.creepypasta.com/white-with-red/
This is the hotel version and also the first variant i read
Duc said…
i jumped after reading the explanations :x
Kitsune said…
eww.. the restaurant guy seems know a lot.. next time im feeling curious, i'll ask a nearby restaurant guy then.
Anonymous said…
OH MY GOSH that was...........I can't even describe my feelings. That was so creepy somehow. But an EXCELLENT scary story :) Good job Ms.Saya
aweomeguy666 said…
i didnt understand the title "the red room" the room wasn't red.....or was it?
Anonymous said…
I've seen a lot of variations on this one too...but something always bothered me. If there is an eye looking at both ends of a keyhole, they would be blocking out the light from the rooms. So they wouldn't be seeing anything but darkness and certainly not the colour of her red eyes. But still, it is a chiller and I love the tale. :)
Kurokage said…
The red room I was more familiar of was the video thoough, I think it goes like where you watch a video from a particular website where it will continually ask a question in japanese over and over until some parts will be omitted and the questions seems to get shorter and becomes "aka ga suki desu ka?" if I'm not mistaken, which means "do you like red?". If memory serves right the last phrase would be strangely heard not from where you are playing the video but behind the person who's watching it or more or less in the room with that person, it's said that the questions is asked by a girl's voice, I can't remember the whole story though. Anyways, nobody is said to know what happens after but the victims are usually found dead with their room painted whole red by their blood, this is said to be linked to some mass murders in past which was left unresolved till now. I can't remember much of what I read about that article and in fact I saw a shortened version of the video myself, it's said to be deleted and blocked already and the shortened version has no much "curse"-effect but mostly I could only remember seeing blinking colors of red and black and a sort of distorted voice of a girl repeating a question until it gradually shortens.

Well putting that one aside, the version I'm familiar with a story like this was not called "The red room" but apparently its the "Hotel Room". And instead of red eyes, the woman in question had blue eyes instead lol.