The News Bulletin (Updated)

About ten years ago I turned on the TV around 2:30 am. Sure enough , all I saw on the screen were colour bars and there was no sign of anything coming up soon. I was about to give up and go to bed when suddenly the colour bars disappeared from the screen, and some place that looked like a landfill appeared instead.

Together with the image, the words "The NNN News Bulletin" popped up at the top. For a while the screen continued to show the same landfill, viewed from a distance.

I carried on watching it, wondering what it was. Soon a lot of names started appearing, moving slowly up from the bottom of the screen, like end credits of a movie; and a monotonous voice read out these names one by one.
So it went on for the next five minutes or so, against a quiet, gloomy music in the background.
Finally when all the names had been said, the voice announced; "They are tomorrow's victims. Goodnight."

Ever since then I'm too scared to watch anything on TV past midnight.
And no one has ever believed my story either.

------------------------------
NB:
The picture is just an image and has nothing to do with the story.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2012:
I found this video on Youtube, showing how "The NNN News Bulletin" might have looked like.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hello again, interesting story. A little confusing, wouldnt the narrator have heard about something on the news the day later? And it doesnt seem like the most believable story either. Maybe it was part of a movie or something?
Anonymous said…
Hi bryan, hi saya,
At first I thought the story wasn't very creepy, but then I read it again and thought about it. Maybe the people named on the screen weren't supposed to die...maybe something else happened to them...to me, thinking about that was the most creepy part.
Hi,bryan, and debbie!
This story is a sort of urban legend, I think (I should put it under "urban legend" category too) and no one knows whether it's true or not. But never mind about its truthfulness, as long as it is interesting!

And also thousands of people die everyday and not all of them are going to be on news. It could have been news from Hell!:) Or as debbie said, something else other than dying happened to them!

Thanks alot for your comments.
Spirit Kitty said…
I found this one very neat. I want to know what happened to the victims... guess I'll just have to use my imagination. I think not knowing makes the story more believable actually, because in real life, when strange things happen, things don't always fit perfectly together. The "unexplained" usually doesn't make much sense.
Unknown said…
Hee...this would scare me more if I didn't have my TV on after midnight, pretty much every single night. Including right now. Maybe only works if you're on antenna, not satellite?

Love the blog! Always great for when I need a good scare!
Anonymous said…
The guy was watching the late night re-run of Dora the Explorer.
Anonymous said…
Wait a second. If they were tomorows victims, then they had a day left to live because it was AFTER midnight. If you were going for the "You will die sometime soon" feeling, it doesn't really work if there's an inconsistency in the timeline, like refering to a tomorow when it's only a few hours into "today". If it said "These are todays victims" it would be completely different.
Brad said…
Strange story...kinda creepy.
Anonymous said…
@ Anonymous, 23rd dec. - That made me LOL.
Anonymous said…
heh, this reminds me of the show we used to watch called "Early Edition", where there's a guy who receives daily newspaper (I think his pet cat delivered it to him)about the THAT day's news. It's like a chance for him to change it.

I liked this story.Interesting, and maybe a bit creepy.
vashack said…
NB? Nota Bene? saya, I love you!!
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Aaron said…
This reminds me so much of the plot of Persona 4. Something like the Midnight Channel. O_O

But that is a creepy sort of story. A channel that predicts who will die in the next day. Very creepy.

Keep up the good work, Ms. Saya. =3
Ryuugu Reina said…
Hmm.... I think the NNN in NNN News network has something in it...

IDK what it really means.
ohaiadit said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
ohaiadit said…
@Aaron: My thoughts exactly! Maybe the narrator should've tried saving the victims before they were killed like the game?

NNN = Netherworld News Network?
Yoku said…
This is a rather neat story.Or,maybe, it was just a fluke, or it really happened..?those are some of the things I'm wondering xD
Aeulus said…
it was light yagami!
Anonymous said…
Aw, I miss when the tele did that. XD
It stopped around when I was still in elementary school, so I've experienced the tele just stopping out of nowhere only once. The white noise freaked me out so I jumped off the couch, turned it off, and hid under the blanket until I passed out! XD

If I heard this legend, which I had several times (though it used an American news station), back then... I wonder if I'd have had the courage to try this.
Duc said…
i think by "a dumping ground" you meant like a landfill? :/ it's where trash goes, if that's the word you're looking for :]
@Duc: I changed the word. Thank you for helping me! :D
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
Wah~ The story itself was too creepy...and now with a video. Sigh~ I'm already afraid to sleep right now, my only way to get over my insomia is watchin' tv but I guess...I won't turn on the tv. o_o
@Kurisu: don't come here too often, dear. You know I get scared translating these stories myself :D
Watch some cheerful stuff, chat with your friends, and read nice books to take your mind off!
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
ryuu said…
NNN= Naberius Nicor Nybbas?
NNN= Namazu Ningyo Nue?

maybe idk
@ryuu: Oh! So those are the names of three damons, aren't they? What a rich knowledge you have there!
And you have knowledge of Japanese words too? Wonderful! Thank you for the interesting comment!
Diogo said…
The most unnerving part of this video is that on two separate instances, this picture of a bizarre, ghastly figure shows up for a couple of frames. However, it can only be seen while the video is playing normally. You cannot see it by hovering the mouse over the seekbar, even if you hold down the left mouse button and scroll frame by frame. It's probably just a clever editing trick, but it really adds to the eerie atmosphere.
ryuu said…
@Diogo - i saw it around 3:42 and 4:05 i think it was holding a cellphone
♡Princess♡ said…
What!? It was Light Yagami!? Gee that guy!(>_<) *shakes fist*
It does very much remind me of Death note...

Ahh I remember reading this!
Now there is a video how exciting, it was very well made but oh that video scared me! I didn't like the image that was slipped in... what a fright! Plus the names and ages made me a bit teary even though they were fake (I sure hope they were fake)
I believe so too the NNN might be Japanese words. I would think creepy words...or in english it could be the
"Names Names Names" Network.

Though i'm not sure this particular story is real, I think the concept sounds interesting. Even if the victims named do not die I think something very bad might happen to them. Though the video was not real, it showed a lot of elderly ages. If not all victims die, it could mean a bad illness of some sort possibly or something that lessens life years.


ayakashi said…
Interestingly, an album of Vocaloid songs called Re:放課後終焉ゲーム by 150 heavily references this urban legend. There are a lot of spoken word interludes between music tracks where the narrator is implied to be the NNN voice; plus the first proper song of the album is called "one man hide-and-seek" and there's an interlude there with the NNN broadcast, but it's very staticky. One can hear the beginning: Good evening. These are the victims.

Other references include Marysan and the doppelgänger rule where allegedly you die 3 days later after seeing your double. Every time I listen to it I think of this blog.
@ayakashi: cool! That game can get renamed as "Saya in Underworld Game"!

Awww Marysan! That urban legend's probably been translated many times already, I don think I'll bother doing it myself! I think I want to translate stuff that nobody else hasn't, that'd be more interesting!
ayakashi said…
Yeah, it's the same every time. Nobody can agree on how to localise メーアリさん though. I've seen it spelt Mary, Marry, Merry and Mearry. I'm more partial to the former. Oh on the alternate spine of the album it just says 私、今あなたの後ろにいるの・・・repeatedly. It's a bit uncomfortable to look at actually...

子取り箱 is a story I'm interested in. I did a search on it (perhaps too boldly), and I found mostly very abridged summaries of it along with "don't search this it's bad luck." Bit of a late warning, don't you think?

I wish there was a better video of NNN out there somewhere, though. There are three and they seem to have gotten details wrong. None of them seem to have any voiceover either :c Apparently NNN is the name of a real news company though? So I do wonder about that. Perhaps the OP was dreaming?

Still my favourite urban legend by far. It's good to tell at parties.
Anny Ta said…
I swear I have read a manga that has the same concept before but I couldn't remember the name.
Ahh, I'm very familiar with this legend, (also a fan of Shuuen no Shiori project, that that other lad mentioned up there).
Apparently at approximately 3:00am every night, this program will appear, listing the names of those who will see "duplicates" of themselves the coming morning, and eventually the duplicate takes over their body as a different being all together.
I'm not sure what a landfill has to do with the broadcast, I hadn't heard that part of it. I'm eager to find out now!
Anonymous said…
That was really creepy, I always thought that things like that might happen. This is why I turn off my tv when the colorful bars show on it or if I hear the loud BEEP noise for a sound test.
Anonymous said…
This story reminds me of shuuen no shiori ._.
Lama said…
I love the story, saya! It is very interesting. And I agree with debbie, thinking about what will happen to the victims is the creepy part of the story... maybe something bad will happen to them, but of course not really dying….maybe something related to bad luck, and also the news bulletin had more than just the victim's names. The reader must have turned on the tv in the end of the episode when they say their names, they would always say what will happen to them...