Crunch Crunch

Crunch Crunch is a scary story about a young man who experiences a disturbing dream. It is based on a Japanese story that is supposed to be true.

The other day, I had a terribly scary dream. In the dream, I found myself at my old junior high school. It has been years since I was at that school, but it still looked exactly the same.

The corridors were empty and the school was eerily silent. As I walked down the corridor, all I could hear was the echo of my own footsteps. It was a bit creepy.

I had the sudden urge to go to the bathroom. Halfway down the corridor, there was a bathroom, so I opened the door and went inside. The bathroom was dark and dirty. I went into one of the stalls and closed the door behind me.

Just then, I noticed that there was something in my coat pocket. When I pulled it out, I saw that it was a crumpled piece of paper. Opening it and smoothing it out, I found there was a message written on it.

“Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch…”

I didn’t understand it. I mean… I understood the words, but they didn’t make sense. The handwriting was scrawled and it looked as if it had been written in a hurry. While I was scratching my head and wondering what it meant, I heard a noise coming from the stall beside me.

I was surprised. I thought there was nobody else in the bathroom.

The sound continued intermittently.

“Crunch… Crunch… Crunch… Crunch… Crunch… Crunch… Crunch…”

Just like in the note.

As I stood there listening, I suddenly felt very scared. My heart was pounding so fast, I thought it would pop out of my chest. I felt like running away, but I had to find out what was making that noise.

Slowly and quietly, being careful not to make a sound, I stood up on the toilet and peeked over the partition.

I saw a girl crouched down in the stall beside me. She had her back to me, so I couldn’t see her face. The light was very dim and all I could make out was her long, black hair. I couldn’t figure out what she was doing, but her head was moving up and down and she was making that sound.

“Crunch… Crunch… Crunch… Crunch… Crunch… Crunch… Crunch…”

That’s when I saw it.

She was holding a severed head and she was chewing on it, tearing the flesh away from the skull…

I let out a horrified scream and fled in terror. Kicking the stall door open, I rushed out of the bathroom and ran screaming down the corridor.

I was running as fast as I could, not daring to look back. I was terrified that if I did, I would see the girl following me. I ran down the stairs, taking 3 or 4 steps at a time, until I came to the ground floor.

Then, I saw the exit doors up ahead and prayed that they would be open. I ran over to the first door and rattled the handle, but it was locked. I tried the second and thrid doors, but they were locked too. I was getting desperate.

When I got to the fourth door, I saw that the key was in the lock. I twisted the key and the door opened easily. Rushing out into the schooolyard, I let out a sigh of relief.

“I did it!” I cried. “I’m safe!”

But was I really safe? I was still in the dream.

Then, all of a sudden, it struck me.

“…I had this dream before…”

I remembered the note in my pocket… the girl in the toilet… the locked doors… Once before, I had the exact same dream.

In the previous dream, I remembered that there was a gate on the other side of the schoolyard. The moment I went through that gate, I had woken up. All I had to do was get to that gate. Then, the dream would be over.

I sprinted across the schoolyard, but when I got to the gate, I saw that it was shut. There was a chain around it with a huge lock.

This time, the dream was different.

I didn’t know what to do. When I looked back over my shoulder at the school building, I saw a shadowy figure standing in one of the windows.

It was the girl.

She noticed me.

Our eyes met.

A sickly smile spread across her face.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

A chill ran down my spine.

I got goosebumps all over my arms.

Suddenly, the girl disappeared from the window.

“She’s coming for me,” I thought. “I’ve got to get away!”

I looked around. The walls of the schoolyard were high… too high to climb. But at one point, the wall was low enough for me to reach. I ran over to it and jumped as high as I could. My fingers clutched the top of the wall and I hauled myself up. My shoes scraped at the wall and I eventually managed to pull myself over it, landing heavily on the grass on the other side.

“Yes!” I cried. “I survived!”

Just then, I felt cold hands on the back of my neck. I whirled around and found myself face to face with the girl. Blood was dripping down her chin. She was grinning at me and gnashing her teeth.

She held my head in her hands and, try as I might, I couldn’t break free. She drew me close to her, until my face was pressed up against hers and then she whispered in my ear.

“I thought I could kill you this time.”

All of a sudden, I woke up.

My head was spinning and I was drenched with sweat.

When I finally calmed myself down, I decided that I should write down something about this dream, so I didn’t forget it. I reached over and picked up the notebook beside my bed.

I flipped through the pages of the notebook, looking for one that was blank.

There weren’t any.

I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Every single page of the notebook had the same thing written on it.

“Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch…”

For a while, I couldn’t move. I was frozen with fear.

This wasn’t the first time I had this dream. Nor was it the second. I have a feeling I’ve had this dream many times before… and each time, it becomes harder to escape.

I shudder to think what will happen the next time I have the dream.

In the future, if you see an article in the newspaper about someone who died in their sleep… It might be me. I don’t want that to happen, but I don’t know if I can stop it.