#1
If you ever travel to Japan, be on the lookout for a lady called Kuchisake-Onna... It's believed by many that she roams the streets at night. Once a beautiful woman, she now sports an ear-to-ear scar across her mouth. Kuchisake-Onna was reportedly left disfigured after being unfaithful to her samurai husband. In a jealous fit of rage, he grabbed his sword. And the rest, as they say, is history...
Also known as "Slit-Mouthed Woman," her angry spirit lives on, even though her body is said to have left this earth during the Heian period (A.D. 794-1185). The locals say she wears a surgical mask to hide her disfigurement. And she loves to approach solo travelers.
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The legend goes that farmers hunting animals like hares or foxes would find that as their dogs were about to make a k**l, a large white hare would suddenly appear out of nowhere and lead the dogs astray, with neither the hunting dogs, their prey nor the white hare ever being seen again. This happened so many times that the village began to run out of hunting dogs and the local village vicar suspected that witchcraft was at play, so he fashioned a custom-made bullet forged out of a silver coin and joined a hunt and when the white hare appeared, he shot it.
The white hare was hit by the silver bullet but was not k****d outright, instead being mortally injured and jumping into a thicket and disappearing before the hunting party could catch up to it. When the hunting party returned to back to the village, they found it in a state of drama, because a local lady called Lydia Shears had been found shot in her cottage and was bleeding out badly. The woman died as a barber-surgeon attempted to extract the bullet from her but as he did, it turned out to not only be the exact same bullet that the vicar had shot the magic hare with, but the lady had been shot in the exact same part of her body as the hare!
After that day, there were no more appearances of the white hare, so people supposed that Lady Lydia was in fact the Witch of Winterslow and that the white hare had been one of her transformations.
But be warned: should you ever bump into her, she has a very particular modus operandi.
"According to legend, she approaches unsuspecting victims, typically lone travelers, and asks, 'Am I pretty?' If the person answers 'yes,' she removes her mask to reveal her terrifying gaping wound (some tales also state that her teeth are sharp and long, like a shark's) and asks again," reports World Atlas.
If they say "yes" again, she slashes their face to resemble hers. Should they answer "no" or scream, she comes at them with a pair of scissors, or another sharp object, sending them straight to the afterlife. There's just no happy ending when it comes to this woman.
#4
In the Capital of India (New Delhi) there's been an urban legend for a particular borough of the City.
It's called Delhi Cantonment area. The urban legend goes like this-
Once, there was a Mother with her child. She was once crossing the street at night, and was unfortunately run over by a Vehicle (different versions have different vehicles).
She was flung away from her child. She crawled to her child, only to find out he has passed away. She died before she could even reach him.
It is said that her Spirit haunts that area starting from 11 p.m.
A friend told me a story that happened with his uncle there~
His Uncle was driving a Scooter (like a moped) at night, going back home from work. He saw a Lady, who gestured for a lift. He stopped besides her and asked her. She told him that she needed lift till her neighbourhood. He agreed since he just wanted to help a lady out in need. After some distance, she asked him to drop her. He wished her goodnight, and went on his way. After some distance, he spotted another Lady asking for a lift. That lady was also wearing a Sari (Traditional Drape), but he couldn't recognise her face. She told him the same thing, and he helped "another" person. Again, he wished her goodnight, and went on his way. While driving away, he had a cold shiver running down his spine. The realisation was starting to dawn over him, but hadn't quite yet.
After some distance, he saw a lady again, asking for a lift. But this time, he pretended to not see her and kept driving. He kinda increased his speed a bit to hurry home sooner. After some distance, something caught his Peripheral vision. He turned his head on his side, to see the same woman running parallel beside him. She was looking straight in his eyes with a huge grin on her face. He was so shell shocked, he twisted his wrist, and went full acceleration at around 100 kmph. After some moments he went unconscious.
When he woke up, it was around 5:30 a.m. or so, the sun was coming out, and there was a person who woke him up. He asked him if he was okay. The person told him that he found him laying on the footpath besides his scooter. He asked him whether he met with an accident or something. My friend's uncle looked around, and bite mark wounds on his Thigh and calves. He had bled, but it was dry now (the blood had clotted already). He found scratches on his helmet, and some damage to the scooter.
He never took that route at night.
So yeah, that was kind of a crazy story.
#5
The story goes around basically that the spirit goes around at nights and knocks at doors. It mimicks your loved one's voices or your friends voices, and asks to open the door. Whoever does open it, dies.
However there is a way to escape it's hunt. The Nishi only knocks 3 times. So if someone knocks at your door late night, people have the habit of waiting for the 4th knock.
Beware if you ever step foot in india, and at night if someone knocks at your door. It might be the Nishi.
#6
World Atlas defines "urban legend" as "a widely circulated, often shocking or eerie story rooted in folklore, popular culture, and sometimes fact." These tales are typically told as true, adds the site, because unlike myths or fairy tales, urban legends tend to involve ordinary people in familiar settings.
Urban legends are unique to their cities, and the elements of mystery or superstition they contain often reflect societal and cultural fears. In the case of Japan's Kuchisake-Onna, it's a mix of the real fear of malicious spirits and the cultural anxieties about appearance and beauty.
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Near Greentown PA there was a story of a young woman in a long green (no coincidence) cape who would flag down highway travelers for a ride, always on a stormy/wintry night.
She supposedly would ask them to drive to her parents' house-- a remote and modest home near NewFoundland in NorthEast PA.
And, when the travelers would arrive there, she would somehow slip out of their car leaving a wet puddle from ice/rain in the backseat .
But, once the travelers would get inside and meet/greet the elderly parents over a cup of tea, they would learn that the young woman had died at least a decade ago in a car crash or some such other tragedy on the highway.
To refute the traveler's shock and disbelief, the elderly parents would open a cabinet and show as proof a dry and dusty old green cape that their late daughter had worn the night of her death.
If you're in the United States and happen to find yourself in Fairfax County, Virginia, this Halloween, head over to the Colchester Overpass. You're sure to bump into many others on a mission to spot the infamous Bunny Man. You'll recognize him by his tattered bunny costume - and the shivers he sends up your spine.
According to locals, the Bunny Man was a mental health patient in the 1970s. He escaped after the vehicle he was being transported in crashed on the way to the asylum. The patient took refuge in the woods, hunting rabbits for food, and hanging their carcasses from trees.
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ETA: I think people used to say he still haunts the property.
#12
Basically a ghost you'll see on the beach shortly before a hurricane. If you see him your house will be fine, but all your neighbors' houses will be flattened.
Over the years, the story of the Bunny Man grew legs, with people adding their own extra spicy and grisly details. Many assume that the patient is no longer alive, but that doesn't mean he's not around.
Word is, his spirit, or possibly his successor, still wanders the area, armed with an axe. He's said to be particularly active near the Colchester Overpass around Halloween. So much so that the pass has now earned the name "Bunny Man Bridge."
"Though the legend is based loosely on a few reported sightings, there is no officially documented evidence of the Bunny Man's existence," notes World Atlas. But this doesn't stop curious thrill-seekers from flocking to the bridge each Halloween, hoping for a sighting.
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Over on the African continent, Nigerians live in fear of Madam Koi Koi. To this day, her story haunts people, especially students staying in boarding schools.
"The 'madam' in question often walked around hostels with her red heels, especially at night, the sound of 'koi koi' trailing behind her," says Abuja resident Dyepkazah Shibayan. "You dare not come out if anyone raised an alarm that they heard the sound. Sometimes horrified students ran out and hostels were shut until morning, or even for days."
For those unfamiliar with the term "koi koi," it's a traditional garment worn in many African countries. Locals haven't quite figured out the reason Madam Koi Koi haunts the hallways, dormitories and toilets. "But one popular theory was that she was fired as a teacher and died days later — vengeful, jobless and sad," Shibayan reveals.
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One of our football players was having some mental health issues. He fumbled a play and some people in the stands laughed at him. He stormed off the field and took off to the old railroad junction. It was a popular place for teens to hang out and drink, and it was well known that the cops wouldn't bother you out there so long as you stayed out of trouble. He got blackout drunk and passed out leaned on the tracks. Never heard the train coming. The next morning they found his truck, a bunch of liquor bottles, and his headless corpse. They never found his head. Legend is if you go out there to the old junction on a crisp fall night, you'll see his ghost wandering around in the weeds, still searching for his missing head.
#18
The tikwi is a creature that makes sounds in the night, it rips it's other half of its body at night and then fly to look for victims.
It makes sound like "Tikwi!", what makes this creature's victims think they are safe is that they make their sounds fainter and fainter to make it sound like they are now far away from the creature, but it's the opposite the father away they sound the closer they are to their victims.
Many local Londoners and travelers might want to avoid the city's Talbot Hotel, for fear of encountering a "ghostly," sobbing woman. Often dressed in white — but sometimes, black — she can be found on an old, oak staircase with royal connections.
"Mary, Queen of Scots — rival to England’s Queen Elizabeth I — is said to have descended the very same flight of steps on the way to her execution in 1587," explains London resident, Laurie Kellman. "But at the time, the multilevel structure was part of nearby Fotheringhay Castle, the site of Mary's beheading."
#19
The story goes that there was a young university drama teacher, who was cheated on by her lover. She was so upset that she hung herself at the bell tower of a building on campus. They say you can see her sometimes at night and she comes out when the wind starts to blow forcefully (at least that’s what I’ve heard). When I was a kid and used to go on walks with my dad on campus, we would search for her. I remember trying to see between the curtains just for a glimpse of her.
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