One Man Hide-And-Seek
My friend and I made a cross-post of these events to various communities. Last Saturday morning, we played One Man Hide-and-Seek, which is a Japanese origin ritual/game for contacting the dead. I think it's like Japan's version of Bloody Mary, only it actually works and is kind of terrifying. Read more about it here(I highly recommend reading this first, it's not very long).
The following, minus some minor revisions is cross-posted from my personal journal. My friend Sam filmed the whole thing, and within the next few weeks we should have some videos online chronicling what we did.
I wait outside the apartment until Sam arrives, and we agree to go for a short walk because I am full of piss and the rule is no going outside until it's day once we begin.
We head down a dark block, when we hear a very brief, high pitched screaming sound from a yard up ahead. The screaming lasted about half a second or so. To me, it sounded like a bird scream. Scared, we leave the area and go home, which is only two blocks away. When we get there, Sam sprinkles rock salt along the garden wall (ashtray during winter time) and we say a prayer rubbing it between our fingers.
We go inside, Dad turns in at around 12:40ish, we start making minor preparations for the ritual and then watch some Fievel Goes West until 2:30. Then, the real preparations begin. I'm not listing them in order. We chronicled most of it on camera anyways, thanks to Sam.
It is worth noting, that during the preparations a feeling of unease came over both of us, and after Sam finished sewing up the doll, she began shaking.
- Sam unstuffs the doll, refills it with rice. Sews it back up with red thread.
- We smudge my room, the livingroom and especially the bathroom with sage(we both felt much calmer after this). This is for cleansing.
- Line Dad and my room's door with rock salt, making it spiritually "off limits" for the game.
- Prepare our separate water bottles with salt water (I did this. I used like 3 tbsp of salt each. We used sea salt)
- Put sage in our mouths, then against the soles of our feet, kept in pace by our socks.
- Prepare the hiding place with a glass of salt water underneath it. We unfolded the futon in the living room and made this our hiding spot.
- Filled up the bathtub.
- Put rock and sea salt in the sink, covered up the bathroom cupboard mirror by turning the cupboards away from ourselves. Smeared the mirrors with the salt water.
- I decide against a few trinkets and a coat I was going to wear during the ritual, out of respect.
- Put three of my nail clippings into the doll. 3 was a significant number for this ritual and so I felt it should be three clippings.
- We turned off the light in my room, got our things out and put them in the living room, found an appropriate channel and shut off the TV.
- My choice for the stabbing utensil was scissors.
At some point, after Sam had finished sewing up the doll and we hadn't yet left my room, we heard a scuffling sound and a click of a door opening. At first I thought it was another tenant in the apartment next to us, then I blamed my cat even though we clearly heard a door open Sam was looking right at Dante but I couldn't see him from where I stood. We brushed it off and after a brief exchange were ready to bring everything outside my bedroom. I went to step outside but backed immediately into my room because the closet door near the suite entrance had opened. That was the sound we heard.
After confirming to ourselves we wanted to go through with this, we closed the door to my room and began the ritual. Before the ritual could begin, we set up our cameras and Sam set the doll down on the chair near the hiding place in the living room. When I went to pick up the doll, Sam noted the doll was in a different position than when she'd set it down.
We turned off all the lights in the living room, I took the doll and scissors and Sam brought the camera and I brought the TV remotes as well as my water bottle. I stabbed the doll, did the first chant and named the doll http://www.tobaccobymail.com/images/roger.jpg (call me a faggot but I'm afraid to write the name out in text myself until I've disposed of the doll properly).
The lights out, we ran into the living room, flicked on the tv and after a bit of struggling managed to get under the futon. We heard sounds from the bathroom and the kitchen entrance. We took mouthfuls of salt water from the same bottle, because by mistake I left my bottle in the bathroom(which I didn't find till after we finished the game). I kept the water bottle near me the whole time.
After counting to ten and confirming to ourselves it was time to go, we got up and by the light of Sam's camera screen, navigated through the kitchen into the bathroom. We both had mouthfuls of salt. I got there first, Sam got there second and I saw the door open further behind her, I assumed it was her body weight hitting the door, after talking it over with her it is unlikely. When the door opened further I heard three consecutive bangs, like the door was bouncing against a wall. I forgot at that moment the toilet was beside the door so there was no way it could hit the wall. The whole scene played out very frantically.
The doll was still in the tub. I scooped it up, spat my salt water over it and Sam kind of weakly horked hers onto the doll in turn. I stabbed it and said the next chant, we hid again. The second time around, with me no longer "it", the feeling of heaviness alleviated a little. I think we both felt in less danger this time, for some weird reason. Sam also knocked over our salt water and it spilled all over the floor and my legs and Dante(cat) went under the couch with us and I'm pretty sure he was licking up some of the salt water.
I counted to ten in my head with my eyes closed, tapping Sam's side for every number. We waited a much longer time for round 2 to leave the futon. This time, only I took salt water from the bottle, and Sam put rock salt in her mouth to supplement (I needed the rest of the water to finish the game). I am unsure if we should have waited longer for it to look for us or not.
The doll was gratefully still in the tub, and I scooped it up, spat out my water on it, had Sam spit her rock salt on it. I stabbed it and said, "I win, I win, I fucking win," out of relief.
We cleaned up a little, and cleansed the rooms the game took place in with white candles. The eczema on my face (fairly under control usually) was inflamed and agitated from the salt that dripped down my chin during the ritual. I put on some cream and moisturizer. We submerged the doll in the salt water in the sink to cleanse it and lit a candle underneath the mirror. After a few minutes we drained the water in the sink and I set the doll on a rack over the toilet to dry.
We set up my Nintendo Wii, and put our SD cards in it to watch the movies we made about the ritual. Sam filmed the whole thing, and we had my camera trained on the living room during the ritual's entire duration.
When I turned on my speakers(I hook my sound up to my stereo, not my TV), we heard a girl humming. She hummed four times, and it sounded like she was breathing inwardly as she did it. It may or may not have been 3:30 AM at this point. The entire ritual itself happened in less than fifteen minutes. I turned off my speakers, and turned them on again. No humming. We brought a white candle from the kitchen into my room and I lit some incense. As we oriented the Wii, my speakers started getting louder on their own so I turned them down once manually and it was fine.
We watched the movies, the one Sam filmed by hand was full of noises we hadn't heard during the ritual, most notably a shrieking like the one we heard on our walk, and a popping sound, like a balloon exploding or a cap gun being fired. The banging I heard before was also present, but I found out Sam never heard it once we heard it over the movie.
There is a faint possibility that at the beginning of my movie, someone said, "You listen to me," but it sounds like Sam speaking and for some reason in a half-whisper. It could be an otherworldly voice, or it could be the tail-end of something else Sam was saying. I am not pretending I know if it's legitimate spookies or not. The sound on my camera was bad, and we were too scared to turn up the volume on my speakers while we watched this stuff on my Wii.
(at some point, I forget when, but it was either before or after we watched the movies we filmed, we shared an exchange that she said she didn't feel anymore presences from the game, and I said I still felt some kind of trickster around that wanted to try and scare us)
We decided to finish watching Fievel Goes West, and I told Sam I'd go to the bathroom first. I went into the bathroom, and the doll was in the sink. Sam didn't move it, and obviously neither did I. Spooked, Sam called Angele for advice on what to do because Angele was a total Godsend and stayed awake during the ritual at her and Sam's apartment while we went about poking the figurative ectoplasmic bear. We did a small ritual to clear what may have been lingering, and watched the rest of Fievel Goes West. (NOTABLY during Fievel Goes West, I got up to get something and when I came back it was a scene I liked, so I skittered back over to the sofa to sit and I shit you not the movie paused and when I sat back down it resumed)
On my way back from walking Sam home, I think I heard a man or else Seagulls laughing, two street lamps went off and I met the cutest dog ever that looked like a bull terrier but wasn't. When I got home, the closet door was open again.
I don't feel any presences in the apartment - of this I'm sure. I'm on edge, and I think when that doll is dried out and burned is when the left over weirdness will stop. The ritual isn't entirely over until the doll has been burnt. We will do this at midnight tonight.
That's all that happened, minus some very insignificant details.
(Sidenote: This was written the morning after it happened. The doll has been disposed of and nothing menacing has occurred since. )
Looking back, the events as they played out were fairly scary, but it was creepier afterwards. The feelings it left me with were scarier than the actual process - like the doll moving after the game was over and not during. But on Sam's camera, some shit showed up that was right by our hiding place, by the TV. Notably, hands on the TV screen, and the silhouette of a small head. I'll goad her into posting her side of the story really soon, so you guys can see these totally brick-shitting stills.
The following, minus some minor revisions is cross-posted from my personal journal. My friend Sam filmed the whole thing, and within the next few weeks we should have some videos online chronicling what we did.
I wait outside the apartment until Sam arrives, and we agree to go for a short walk because I am full of piss and the rule is no going outside until it's day once we begin.
We head down a dark block, when we hear a very brief, high pitched screaming sound from a yard up ahead. The screaming lasted about half a second or so. To me, it sounded like a bird scream. Scared, we leave the area and go home, which is only two blocks away. When we get there, Sam sprinkles rock salt along the garden wall (ashtray during winter time) and we say a prayer rubbing it between our fingers.
We go inside, Dad turns in at around 12:40ish, we start making minor preparations for the ritual and then watch some Fievel Goes West until 2:30. Then, the real preparations begin. I'm not listing them in order. We chronicled most of it on camera anyways, thanks to Sam.
It is worth noting, that during the preparations a feeling of unease came over both of us, and after Sam finished sewing up the doll, she began shaking.
- Sam unstuffs the doll, refills it with rice. Sews it back up with red thread.
- We smudge my room, the livingroom and especially the bathroom with sage(we both felt much calmer after this). This is for cleansing.
- Line Dad and my room's door with rock salt, making it spiritually "off limits" for the game.
- Prepare our separate water bottles with salt water (I did this. I used like 3 tbsp of salt each. We used sea salt)
- Put sage in our mouths, then against the soles of our feet, kept in pace by our socks.
- Prepare the hiding place with a glass of salt water underneath it. We unfolded the futon in the living room and made this our hiding spot.
- Filled up the bathtub.
- Put rock and sea salt in the sink, covered up the bathroom cupboard mirror by turning the cupboards away from ourselves. Smeared the mirrors with the salt water.
- I decide against a few trinkets and a coat I was going to wear during the ritual, out of respect.
- Put three of my nail clippings into the doll. 3 was a significant number for this ritual and so I felt it should be three clippings.
- We turned off the light in my room, got our things out and put them in the living room, found an appropriate channel and shut off the TV.
- My choice for the stabbing utensil was scissors.
At some point, after Sam had finished sewing up the doll and we hadn't yet left my room, we heard a scuffling sound and a click of a door opening. At first I thought it was another tenant in the apartment next to us, then I blamed my cat even though we clearly heard a door open Sam was looking right at Dante but I couldn't see him from where I stood. We brushed it off and after a brief exchange were ready to bring everything outside my bedroom. I went to step outside but backed immediately into my room because the closet door near the suite entrance had opened. That was the sound we heard.
After confirming to ourselves we wanted to go through with this, we closed the door to my room and began the ritual. Before the ritual could begin, we set up our cameras and Sam set the doll down on the chair near the hiding place in the living room. When I went to pick up the doll, Sam noted the doll was in a different position than when she'd set it down.
We turned off all the lights in the living room, I took the doll and scissors and Sam brought the camera and I brought the TV remotes as well as my water bottle. I stabbed the doll, did the first chant and named the doll http://www.tobaccobymail.com/images/roger.jpg (call me a faggot but I'm afraid to write the name out in text myself until I've disposed of the doll properly).
The lights out, we ran into the living room, flicked on the tv and after a bit of struggling managed to get under the futon. We heard sounds from the bathroom and the kitchen entrance. We took mouthfuls of salt water from the same bottle, because by mistake I left my bottle in the bathroom(which I didn't find till after we finished the game). I kept the water bottle near me the whole time.
After counting to ten and confirming to ourselves it was time to go, we got up and by the light of Sam's camera screen, navigated through the kitchen into the bathroom. We both had mouthfuls of salt. I got there first, Sam got there second and I saw the door open further behind her, I assumed it was her body weight hitting the door, after talking it over with her it is unlikely. When the door opened further I heard three consecutive bangs, like the door was bouncing against a wall. I forgot at that moment the toilet was beside the door so there was no way it could hit the wall. The whole scene played out very frantically.
The doll was still in the tub. I scooped it up, spat my salt water over it and Sam kind of weakly horked hers onto the doll in turn. I stabbed it and said the next chant, we hid again. The second time around, with me no longer "it", the feeling of heaviness alleviated a little. I think we both felt in less danger this time, for some weird reason. Sam also knocked over our salt water and it spilled all over the floor and my legs and Dante(cat) went under the couch with us and I'm pretty sure he was licking up some of the salt water.
I counted to ten in my head with my eyes closed, tapping Sam's side for every number. We waited a much longer time for round 2 to leave the futon. This time, only I took salt water from the bottle, and Sam put rock salt in her mouth to supplement (I needed the rest of the water to finish the game). I am unsure if we should have waited longer for it to look for us or not.
The doll was gratefully still in the tub, and I scooped it up, spat out my water on it, had Sam spit her rock salt on it. I stabbed it and said, "I win, I win, I fucking win," out of relief.
We cleaned up a little, and cleansed the rooms the game took place in with white candles. The eczema on my face (fairly under control usually) was inflamed and agitated from the salt that dripped down my chin during the ritual. I put on some cream and moisturizer. We submerged the doll in the salt water in the sink to cleanse it and lit a candle underneath the mirror. After a few minutes we drained the water in the sink and I set the doll on a rack over the toilet to dry.
We set up my Nintendo Wii, and put our SD cards in it to watch the movies we made about the ritual. Sam filmed the whole thing, and we had my camera trained on the living room during the ritual's entire duration.
When I turned on my speakers(I hook my sound up to my stereo, not my TV), we heard a girl humming. She hummed four times, and it sounded like she was breathing inwardly as she did it. It may or may not have been 3:30 AM at this point. The entire ritual itself happened in less than fifteen minutes. I turned off my speakers, and turned them on again. No humming. We brought a white candle from the kitchen into my room and I lit some incense. As we oriented the Wii, my speakers started getting louder on their own so I turned them down once manually and it was fine.
We watched the movies, the one Sam filmed by hand was full of noises we hadn't heard during the ritual, most notably a shrieking like the one we heard on our walk, and a popping sound, like a balloon exploding or a cap gun being fired. The banging I heard before was also present, but I found out Sam never heard it once we heard it over the movie.
There is a faint possibility that at the beginning of my movie, someone said, "You listen to me," but it sounds like Sam speaking and for some reason in a half-whisper. It could be an otherworldly voice, or it could be the tail-end of something else Sam was saying. I am not pretending I know if it's legitimate spookies or not. The sound on my camera was bad, and we were too scared to turn up the volume on my speakers while we watched this stuff on my Wii.
(at some point, I forget when, but it was either before or after we watched the movies we filmed, we shared an exchange that she said she didn't feel anymore presences from the game, and I said I still felt some kind of trickster around that wanted to try and scare us)
We decided to finish watching Fievel Goes West, and I told Sam I'd go to the bathroom first. I went into the bathroom, and the doll was in the sink. Sam didn't move it, and obviously neither did I. Spooked, Sam called Angele for advice on what to do because Angele was a total Godsend and stayed awake during the ritual at her and Sam's apartment while we went about poking the figurative ectoplasmic bear. We did a small ritual to clear what may have been lingering, and watched the rest of Fievel Goes West. (NOTABLY during Fievel Goes West, I got up to get something and when I came back it was a scene I liked, so I skittered back over to the sofa to sit and I shit you not the movie paused and when I sat back down it resumed)
On my way back from walking Sam home, I think I heard a man or else Seagulls laughing, two street lamps went off and I met the cutest dog ever that looked like a bull terrier but wasn't. When I got home, the closet door was open again.
I don't feel any presences in the apartment - of this I'm sure. I'm on edge, and I think when that doll is dried out and burned is when the left over weirdness will stop. The ritual isn't entirely over until the doll has been burnt. We will do this at midnight tonight.
That's all that happened, minus some very insignificant details.
(Sidenote: This was written the morning after it happened. The doll has been disposed of and nothing menacing has occurred since. )
Looking back, the events as they played out were fairly scary, but it was creepier afterwards. The feelings it left me with were scarier than the actual process - like the doll moving after the game was over and not during. But on Sam's camera, some shit showed up that was right by our hiding place, by the TV. Notably, hands on the TV screen, and the silhouette of a small head. I'll goad her into posting her side of the story really soon, so you guys can see these totally brick-shitting stills.