Story 1
The Voice on the Stairs
I work as a cleaner in a certain building.
This is something that happened while I was cleaning the building’s stairwell.
That day, as usual, I was vacuuming the stairs starting from the top floor—the 10th floor—working my way down. I was quietly working by myself, and when I reached the 8th floor, I heard a man’s voice.
Instinctively, I looked around.
It was a time of day when almost no one passes through, but sometimes people do use the stairs.
While vacuuming, I sometimes fail to notice someone’s presence and end up blocking the way of those who work in the building. So, I glanced around and moved to the side of the stairwell to make way.
But when I looked around, there was no one. Normally, when a door closes it makes a loud clang sound, but I hadn’t heard that either. There was no sign of anyone on the stairs.
I thought maybe I’d imagined it—or it was just ringing in my ears—and went back to work. The vacuum cleaner’s whirrr echoed through the stairwell.
I had gone down about five more steps when I heard the voice again. A man’s low voice. I couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying, but it sounded like humming. It seemed to be coming from somewhere above me, higher than the 5th floor where I was standing.
The pitch—Mi, Do, Re, maybe?—repeated over and over, and I could tell it was getting closer.
It seemed like whoever it was was coming down the stairs, getting nearer and nearer.
I got scared and looked around again, but still there was no one.
And yet the humming kept going, unbroken.
There were no footsteps. I was supposed to be alone in this deserted stairwell, and yet I could hear a man’s voice.
“Mm-hmm—hmm—hmm—”
It was a meaningless, humming-like voice. There was some sort of melody to it, but I couldn’t tell if it was a song or not. Still, I could hear it clearly.
All I could do was stand there frozen, staring blankly up toward the floor above where the voice was coming from.
The louder the voice grew, the less I could see anyone.
Looking back now, I should have just run down and escaped, but at the time, the idea of leaving or running never even occurred to me.
The voice finally came right up behind me.
Goosebumps erupted all over my body.
This is bad, bad, bad, bad.
There was no sign of a person, but it felt like the voice itself was walking.
Terrified, I squeezed my eyes shut.
I was scared, thinking something might happen to me, but contrary to my fears, the voice eventually passed me by. It grew fainter and fainter. Then it disappeared.
Months have passed since then, and I’ve never heard that voice again.
That’s the end of the story. It’s not like in a typical scary tale where something actually happens to the person, but it was still a terrifying experience for me.
