THE HAUNTED TUNNEL UNDER THE GRAVEYARD (#1 in a series of 5) _____________________________________________ Kabaya Ghost Stories Copyrighted Takaki Yamamoto 2004. Originally written and created by Takaki Yamamoto. Lego vignette version created by Patrick Yrizarry 2004. _____________________________________________ STORY: The following story is a work of fiction and is not based on any actual people or events. THE HAUNTED TUNNEL UNDER THE GRAVEYARD A Japanese man, who shall be referred to as "S", had recently purchased a house near Tokyo. Every day he caught a bus and went off to work and every night he caught a bus and returned to his new home. But one night he missed his bus and had to walk all of the way home. It was a very dark night and "S" found himself negotiating very unfamiliar streets. It seemed that he had been walking for a very long time when he came across a large tree at a fork in the road. "S" knew that his home was in certain direction, so he continued down the way that would take him home the quickest. Unfortunately for "S" the way home was down a dark, lonely road without any lights. "S" walked down this long, lonesome path and became a bit frightened. He noticed that he could not hear any noise at all, which was strange because he was not very far out of Tokyo. An eerie feeling crept over "S" as he discovered a dark tunnel at the end of the road. "S" hesitated, afraid to go into the tunnel, but he knew that his home could not be very far away and that if he could use the tunnel as a shortcut he might be home very soon. Tired from walking and afraid to lose his way by backtracking, "S" bravely entered the spooky tunnel! Step by step, "S" slowly walked into the tunnel when a funny feeling came upon him. He screamed and his voice echoed throughout the tunnel. "S" thought he saw a movement on the tunnel wall, so he stopped and begun to stare at the wall. There on the tunnel wall a face began to form! One scary, tortured face emerged, followed by another and then another! "S" panicked, stumbled off the curbside and fell backwards onto the tunnel roadway, dropping his briefcase. Chills went down his spine as he stared at the screaming ghostly faces, and he begun to scream! The last thing "S" remembered before passing out was cold, ghostly hands that came out of the wall and grabbed at his legs! The next day, "S" woke up in his home without any memory of what happened to him after he fainted in the tunnel! He went next door to his neighbor's house and told his neighbor about the events that had occurred in the scary tunnel. His neighbor explained to him that the tunnel was haunted because it was built under an old graveyard (not an uncommon occurrence in Japan) and that the ghosts he saw were those of the buried people from the graveyard who no one prayed for! His neighbor also told "S" that no one ever walked in that tunnel at night because of the ghost. "S" then promised himself that he would never miss his bus again and that, no matter what, he would never walk through the haunted tunnel under the graveyard! The End. _____________________________________________ BACKGROUND: These Lego vignettes were based on a Japanese 'candy-toy' which I found in a local Japanese grocery store in the fall of 2004. The toys were crafted by Takaki Yamamoto, a talented Japanese artist who also wrote the stories for each scene. Each box came with a random toy, a piece of chewing gum and a folded card with the story of the ghostly vignette scene. An elderly female neighbor originally from Japan translated the stories for me to the best of her abilities, but she can not speak English very well and I added a bit more to the stories for effect, so I know some parts of some of the stories were not properly translated. If anyone can read Japanese and is interested, please e-mail me at good.fortune@verizon.net. I can scan and e-mail the story booklet to you and if you help me with any major problems I have in my translation, I can redo these read-me files and will mention your name in them. Thank you.