Stories that land

Palden's ghost story took a strange turn at bedtime

Palden recalls a night when he couldn't move and sensed an unseen visitor approaching.

Before the story

Palden (パルデン) tells this as something he sensed while trying to sleep. What he thought was haunting him soon became a very different sort of visitor.

Someone was getting closer

I think I'm pretty sensitive to ghosts. Back when I worked at Don Quijote, I'd sometimes feel a tap on my shoulder, turn around, and find nobody there.

Some visitors seemed to want to keep me awake. I'd feel unable to move and hear giggling—more mischievous than frightening. I slept with an eye mask, and sometimes felt someone trying to pull it off. ‘Not the eye mask!’ I'd think. When I moved, the ghost would disappear.

Then there was one especially ridiculous visitor. I was lying down, unable to move, when I heard a low ‘oooh’ coming closer. I couldn't see a thing. I could just sense it getting nearer.

It reached the space behind me and lay down in exactly the same position I was in. Just lying there with me.

About ten seconds later, it started snoring. Loudly.

I thought, ‘What are you doing, falling asleep?’ But the snoring went on for about an hour.

Eventually I fell asleep too. When I woke up, it was gone.

Illustration of a person in a yellow shirt lying on a pillow with a blue eye mask over their eyes.

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