Sound of the Ocean

The Sound of the Ocean is a creepy tale from Japan. It is a very popular story on Japanese websites and many people say it is one of the scariest stories they have read. I’m not so sure… Maybe you won’t find it as creepy as Japanese people seem to find it.

Last night, I was returning home on the last train. My house is in the countryside and I was the only one in the train car. The motion of the train was making me sleepy and I still had quite a few stations to wait until it came to my stop.

I began to doze off and I could hear the soothing sound of the ocean as my eyes closed. I noticed it was awfully cold in the train carriage and I was just about to fall asleep when it hit me.

Why could I hear the sound of the ocean?

Suddenly, I opened my eyes and looked around. The carriage was completely empty. Where was the noise coming from?

Then I looked up.

On the luggage rack above me, I saw something. Somebody was lying there. It was a man with pale, cracked skin and unkempt hair. He had an unsettling grin on his face and he was staring down at me, through the slats on the luggage rack.

His mouth was moving. The sound I was hearing wasn’t the ocean. It was the sound of him whispering.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh…

Our eyes met and I was so scared that I found it impossible to look away. In that moment, it was as if I forgot how to move my eyes and I couldn’t break eye contact with him.

My heart was beating fast and I was in a panic. His mouth just kept moving, making those whooshing sounds, like waves crashing against rocks. His yellowed eyes just stared into mine.

Just when I thought I was about to go insane, the train arrived at my station. I jumped out of my seat and practically rolled out through the door and onto the platform. As the train pulled away, I could see him still staring at me.

I was terrified and hurried back to my house. Even when I closed the door behind me and locked it tightly, I still couldn’t relax.

In the middle of the night, I woke up and heard something. The noise seemed to be coming from downstairs.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh…

It was the soothing sound of the ocean.

My heart almost stopped.

I was too frightened to go downstairs and see what it was…