The Red Room

赤い部屋

“Have you heard about it?”

David looked up from his book. “What?”

“Haven’t you heard the legend?”

David sighed. He wasn’t really the type to fall for this contemporary-era bullshit people passed off as “urban legends.” He turned around in his seat. “What are you talking about?”

Ian adjusted his glasses. “I thought you of all people would know.” He smirked. “After all, you’re the one who’s always on the computer.”

David gritted his teeth as Zachary stepped forward. “Leave him alone, Ian. He doesn’t want to hear your stupid folktales.”

“Oh, but this is real.” Ian turned around to his girlfriend. “Alicia, haven’t you ever heard of…” He paused briefly, as if savoring the moment. “…the Red Room?”

Alicia nodded. “It’s for real, alright.”

Barbara tugged on her shoulder. “Don’t make him tell the story again. I get the creeps every time he does.”

“Don’t worry about it, Barb.” Ian grinned. “I think Davey-boy here is too afraid to hear the story.”

David slammed his book onto the table. “Okay. Go ahead and tell me your stupid little story.”

Ian smirked. “Excellent.”

“Oh, I don’t want to listen.” Barbara covered her ears and walked away. Alicia watched her go, and snorted. David crossed his arms, and Zachary sat down next to him. They waited.

Ian pushed his glasses up his nose. “This story is from an urban legend that originated in Japan. It’s called the ‘Red Room.’” He paused. David and Zachary waited patiently.

He continued. “It’s a secret place that can only be found on the internet. But the site has no URL, so you can’t just type it in and expect to find it. It’s pretty much invisible. There’s no way to access it, except for one thing…”

Zachary leaned forward, interested. David sighed.

“The one thing that can take you to the site…” He paused again. “…Is a killer pop-up ad.”

David snorted loudly, his hand rushing to his mouth to contain the laughter. Ian took notice. “What’s so damn funny?”

“Did you say a killer pop-up ad? That’s the most retarded thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I’m being serious, David.”

“Alicia, is he being serious?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, Christ, stop yanking my chain like this. It’s funny the first time you hear it, then it’s just stupid.”

Ian growled. “I am being serious. Just shut up and let me tell the story.”

David was grinning. “Alright. Go ahead.”

“Yeah,” Zachary said. “Keep going.”

Barbara was still in the background. She turned around, and quickly spun away, hands at her ears. “It’s just spooky,” she muttered.

“Alright.” Ian sighed. “So, what I meant by a ‘killer pop-up ad’ is that if you dare to close it, you are taken to the Red Room.”

“So?” David asked.

“When you visit the Red Room, you won’t live to view one of your sleazy porno sites, David. You die.”

David snickered. “You die? This is starting to sound like a campfire ghost story.”

Ian ignored David’s comments. “The ad will never disappear, and once you find it, it will follow you for the rest of your life. Even to other computers. It will never leave you, unless you close it, and once you do…”

“Game over,” Alicia whispered. Barbara shuddered.

David groaned. Zachary, however, was much more interested. “Where does this pop-up appear?”

“It appears at a certain time, and a certain place. It’s different for every person.”

“What does it look like?”

“It’s small, and has a red background, like a pool of blood. In Japanese writing, it asks you ‘Do you like it?’”

“So let me get this straight,” David said. “Somewhere on the internet, there’s a webpage called the ‘Red Room.’ Anyone who finds it dies. The only way to find it is by encountering an elusive, murderous pop-up ad. Is that correct?”

Ian sighed. “More or less, yes.”

David stood up from his seat. “Thank you for that complete and utter waste of my time.”

“Aw, come on, David.” Zachary shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad a story.”

“I don’t care. What I do care is that these morons are treating it like it’s real.”

“It is real,” Ian shouted.

“You see?”

“Look,” Zachary said calmly. “Maybe it’s real, maybe it’s just a stupid myth. Who knows. Let’s just drop it, okay?”

“Alright,” Ian said. “I’ll prove that it’s real. I’ll go online and show you.”

“You’re going to look it up?” David asked. “But if you find it, won’t it kill you?”

“No, jackass. I’m not going to look for the actual site. Just an article. Something that will prove to you that the Red Room is for real.”

“Is that your mouth or your ass? Because there sure is a lot of shit coming out of it.”

“Fuck you!”

“Ian!” Alicia shouted. “Calm down. If he doesn’t believe it, he doesn’t believe it.”

“But I can prove it’s real.” He turned to David, smirking. “Maybe you should try looking for it, David. They say that the skeptics are always the most likely to encounter it.”

David didn’t reply, merely turning around and walking away. Zachary looked from him to Ian anxiously, then stood up and followed him out of the room. Ian watched him leave, his face an angry scowl. “I’ll show him. Sometimes, urban legends are a bit more than just folktales. He’ll see.”

LATER, THAT AFTERNOON…

David sighed as he dropped his bookbag onto the chair. It was 5:00. His mom wouldn’t be home for another hour. That would give him plenty of time on the computer.

He quickly sat down and started it up. The Windows 98 loading screen flickered before him, then abruptly changed to a view of his desktop. He moved the cursor across the screen, and launched the internet explorer.

Grinning, he went to the address bar. “What should I ogle at today?” he thought out loud. Personally, he was in the mood for some lesbian action…

The Yahoo! homepage opened up and he placed his hands onto the keyboard. Just a few clicks away from satisfaction.

Suddenly, he remembered the story Ian had told him. The Red Room. The killer pop-up ad. He snorted as he recollected the tale. Stupid urban legends.

He raised his fingers on the keyboard, ready to type the words “LESBO XXX,” but he didn’t. He remained motionless, thinking. If the stupid story Ian had told him was an actual urban legend, there’d probably be some article about it on the web.

David rubbed his nose. Not that he would believe that crap for a second, but he felt like making sure Ian didn’t just pull that tall-tale out of his ass. He probably wouldn’t find anything, but he supposed it was worth a look. He typed in the words and hit “search.”

RED ROOM

Nothing, but a bunch of crap about rooms painted red. What else could he try… He typed in a different query.

RED ROOM URBAN LEGEND

Nothing at all.

KILLER POP-UP AD

A few of the results were amusing… but nothing on the Red Room.

JAPANESE URBAN LEGENDS

He got a few sites, but none of them said anything about the Red Room. He groaned, deciding to try once more.

RED ROOM KILLER

At first there appeared to be nothing, but as he scrolled down the page, he came across a site. The title was, “Sasebo Slashing.” The description read, “…ruled to be institutionalized. The killer was sent to a reformatory in the Tochigi prefecture. Analysis of her personal life revealed that she had become obsessed with an obscure urban legend known as the ‘Red Room,’ and that she had…”

Intrigued, David decided to open the link. It took him to a small webpage in the form of an article. The words “Sasebo Slashing” ran across the top, and a photograph of a young Asian girl wearing a white sweatshirt with the word “Nevada” printed across it stood below the title. David slowly looked down at the article, and began to read.

On the morning of June 1st, 2004, a schoolgirl in Sasebo, Japan, murdered her classmate, Satomi Mitarai. She had slit Mitarai’s throat and wrists with a retractable knife in an empty classroom during lunch hour. After committing the crime, she returned to class, covered in blood. Her teacher called the police upon finding the body of Mitarai.

The girl was taken into custody, confessing to the crime and claiming to “have done a horrible thing” and that she was sorry. The motive for the murder was unsure, but investigation suggests that some derogatory remarks from Mitarai could have sparked the girl’s anger.

Due to the law in Japan, the girl’s name could not be released to the public. Her official name was “Girl A,” but as photographs of her wearing the Nevada University sweatshirt spread across the web, people began referring to her as “Nevada-tan.”

On September 15th, Nevada-tan was ruled to be institutionalized. The killer was sent to a reformatory in the Tochigi prefecture. Analysis of her personal life revealed that she had become obsessed with an obscure urban legend known as the ‘Red Room,’ and that she had amassed information from all across the internet about the supposed webpage. Some believe the myth may have influenced Nevada-tan’s actions.

David rubbed his chin. Apparently the Red Room was an actual urban legend. And it also appeared that one Japanese schoolgirl might have taken the myth too far.

He leaned back in his chair. So, the Red Room was a real urban legend. But it was still just a myth. He snickered, wondering if Ian actually thought that this bullshit was for real. Nobody could be that stupid.

Well, now that he had gotten that out of the way, it’d be nice to just kick back and watch some smut. He quickly returned to Yahoo! and typed in words that would lead him to large-chested women going at each other. He licked his lips.

As always, his query brought up hundreds of thousands of sites. He scrolled down the list a bit, then decided on a site called “Cherry Poppers.” It sounded appealing to him.

He opened up the site, grinning softly. As the page loaded, a pop-up ad appeared in the center of the screen.

WOULD YOU LIKE FREE ACCESS TO THE HOTTEST PORN?

CLICK HERE!

Just another stupid ad trying to get him to pay for his porn. Not this person. He hastily exited out the ad just as the page loaded. Images of nude voyeurs dotted the screen. He licked his chops.

Scrolling down the list of links, he was treated to a variety of appealing opportunities…

Busty babe Tammy does it doggie-style

Lesbian strap-on action

Horny Asian Kimiko poses for the camera

XXX model Lola wearing tight red bikini

Janice and Patricia MILF action

He grinned. They all sounded good. He continued to run down the list, until he found one that stood out to him.

Four girls lesbian orgy

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” he said aloud. He clicked the link. The page loaded, and he waited anxiously. It wasn’t often he’d get to view movie clips like this. And it was all for free, he thought with a smirk. Finally, the page loaded.

ERROR 404

Page could not be found.

Bullshit! He clicked the refresh button. After a few seconds of loading, the same message appeared. Another dead link. Fantastic. Disappointed, he clicked the return button, bringing him back to the last page he had been one.

His jaw dropped. What the hell? This wasn’t the website. It was black, no pictures, with words written in hiragana. Where the hell was he? He clicked the refresh button, but it took him back to the same page. He growled, wondering if he had accidentally caught a bug while surfing the web.

Suddenly, his attention turned to the center of the screen. A small Flash animation was loading. He waited, and finally a button appeared in the lower-right corner. “Play?”

Unsure what to do, he cautiously clicked it. Maybe this was the video he was looking for.

Immediately he could tell it was not. There were a lot of words in Japanese, moving across the screen. He knew a little Japanese from his classes, but not enough to decipher the messages before they disappeared. Finally, the animation switched to a movie of two kids talking in a classroom. He still couldn’t understand what they were saying.

What the hell was this? The kids continued to talk, before the screen blacked out and returned to a view of a boy’s room, with a computer. The kid from school sat down, and began searching the web… David couldn’t tell what he was looking for though.

However, the kid seemed to get bored with searching and eventually began visiting other sites. David recognized a few. The kid in the video finally reached a webpage that looked…

…Exactly like the one David was on. David watched carefully. As the kid continued to look around, a pop-up suddenly appeared in the upper-left corner. David squinted to read what it said. More hiragana. He fumbled under his desk for his English-to-Japanese dictionary.

As he did, the movie continued. The kid tried to close the ad, but it kept reappearing. Then, he was suddenly taken to a webpage that was entirely red. David glanced up at it and felt his blood run cold. The kid seemed shocked, and before David could tell what was going on, a flash came, and the screen went black.

He watched the computer monitor nervously. Slowly, a view of the kid’s school appeared. Some other kids were talking about something together. Finally, the clip returned to the boy’s bedroom, only this time, it was all red… There was one last view of the red webpage, then the animation ended with an eerie hum.

David scratched his chin. What the hell was that? The pop-up ad? The red webpage? Could it have possibly been an animation about the stupid Red Room legend? Was this what was getting everyone all worked-up? A stupid Flash?

Angrily, he moved to exit out the browser. He’d had enough of this crap. He moved the cursor up to the X at the top of the screen. Suddenly, a white box appeared on the side of the screen. He paused, glancing over at it. It loaded, and finally revealed itself. It was a pop-up ad, with a red background. Black hiragana words were strewn across it. A ghastly voice spoke the words through David’s speakers. He ran his eyes across the message.

あなたは⌇好きですか?

“Anata wa… suki desu ka?” he read out loud. What the hell did that mean?

His English-to-Japanese dictionary. He found it and grabbed it. After searching through the book and looking back up at the grim message, he found the meaning, and it made his heart skip a beat.

DO YOU LIKE IT?

He didn’t believe his eyes. It was the ad. The stupid ad that Ian had been talking about. It was real.

David shook his head. Was it really? This was just some goddamn prank. Ian probably rigged it up for him, the little bastard.

He pulled out his cellphone and dialed Ian’s number. It rang for a minute, but nobody picked up. David gritted his teeth and tried again. Still, no answer.

That wasn’t right. Ian always had his cellphone on him. He must be in the john or something. It didn’t matter. David would still beat his ass at school the next morning.

He returned to the computer monitor. The ad remained motionless on the screen. The black, foreign letters on the red background looked like debris floating in a pool of blood. But something seemed strange about the ad… It was cut in half. The “あなたは” was separated from the “好きですか.” What the hell did that mean?

David snorted. It was just some stupid prank. Without thinking, he moved the cursor up and closed the ad. “There,” he said out loud. “I closed the ad. I’m not dead.” He grinned. “Suck that down, Ian!”

Just as the word “Ian” left his lips, a small window opened up back on the screen.

あなたは⌇好きですか?

David’s grin drooped. “The hell?” he muttered. The ad had reappeared.

God damn it, Ian. Your stupid prank isn’t going to work. There are “endless pop-ups” all over the internet. You close one, and another one appears in its place. It’s just a dumb little game. He went and closed the window.

The ad reopened.

あなたは赤⌇好きですか?

What the hell? A new character had appeared in the message. Now the sentence didn’t even make sense. Frustrated, he closed the ad again. It reopened.

あなたは赤⌇好きですか?

Now, he was getting pissed. This stupid prank had gone on long enough. He closed the window once more.

It reopened.

あなたは赤い⌇好きですか?

Suddenly, David began to feel fearful. He shook his head. This was all bullshit. A fucking prank. He closed the window again. It reopened.

あなたは赤い⌇好きですか?

He closed it. It reopened.

あなたは赤い⌇好きですか?

He closed it. It reopened.

あなたは赤い部⌇好きですか?

Furious, he slammed his fists onto the desk. This wasn’t even funny anymore. He raised his hand to the mouse, but suddenly the ad disappeared on its own.

What the hell? Was that it? Was it over? He felt relieved.

The ad reappeared.

Then it disappeared.

And reappeared again.

David watched helplessly as the ad kept closing, and reopening. Each time, a new part of the message was revealed. His heart was racing, he could feel it pounding in his chest. Finally, the ad opened one last time, the eerie voice in the back screaming the words.

あなたは赤い部屋が⌇好きですか?

David knew part of the message. But he had to be sure. He checked his English-to-Japanese dictionary once again. As he found the meaning, the book slipped from his hands and fell to the floor with a thud.

DO YOU LIKE THE RED ROOM?

Before he could react, the screen suddenly flickered. The web browser was suddenly taken to a new webpage. David didn’t believe his eyes.

It was all red, and it had a long list of names in black… He skimmed the list as it scrolled downwards automatically. Who were these people? What had happened to them? Ami Kawasaki, James Baselton, Jean Paul Daladier, Liu Sung-ti…

The list went on and on. Xena Oroyo, Alex Short, Kim Yamasuki, Ichiro Masashi, Ian Johnson…

Ian Johnson.

Ian’s name was on the list.

And then, it hit him.

This was the Red Room. The list of names was the list of people who had found it. People who became victims. He was trembling in his seat.

As the list came to an end, a new name slowly typed itself at the bottom. David Winchester. It was him.

He was terrified, hands shaking, brow sweating. His heart was bursting through his chest, his breath coming in ragged gasps. As he sat in the chair, too scared to move, he heard a deep, demonic voice whisper into his ear, “Do you like the Red Room?”

He suddenly felt as though someone was standing behind him.

THE NEXT MORNING…

Zachary rushed across the schoolyard. He had to find Alicia. Only she would know.

There. Behind the tree. She stood with her friend Barbara, weeping. He dashed over to them. “Alicia!”

The girl turned around, cheeks reddened and tear-stained. “He’s dead.”

“I know. I saw it on the news.”

“Ian’s dead. And so is David.”

“Do you know what happened?”

She sniffled, as Barbara patted her back. “They say that the two committed suicide.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. They painted their rooms red with their own blood.”

Zachary felt his heart drop. Slowly, he turned away, a nauseous feeling rising in his gut. As the wind blew against him, he silently whispered to himself, “I guess they found the Red Room.”

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

This is a work of fiction. However, the Red Room is an actual Japanese urban legend. Nevada-tan is a real person, and she really did kill her classmate on June 1st, 2004. It is also true that she had a fascination with the Red Room legend. The Flash animation described in the story does exist, and watching it may lead you to an unexpected fright. The real Red Room has never been found, or at least, by anyone still alive. Is it real, or just a myth? I don’t take it very seriously, but still, I like to turn on the ad-blocker, just in case…