Falling Station

Falling Station is a scary riddle about a young man who falls asleep on the train and wakes up to find a strange girl leaning on his shoulder. It is one of the “cryptic Japanese stories” or the stories that are “scary when you understand the meaning”. You have to think about it for a while to figure out the hidden meaning. If you give up, you can find the solution in the comments section below.

It was very late at night and I fell asleep on the train. When I woke up, there was a strange girl sitting beside me. She seemed to be asleep and her head was resting on my shoulder.

She looked pretty cute with long black hair and pale white skin. To be honest, I didn’t mind having a beautiful woman leaning on my shoulder for a while. In fact, I quite liked it.

After two or three stations, the girl was still sleeping on my shoulder. We were the only two people left on the train.

“Maybe she missed her stop,” I thought to myself. “Maybe I should wake her up…”

All of a sudden, I heard the girl whisper, “Don’t move…”

Her eyes were still closed and she kept her head on my shoulder.

“I want to stay a little while longer,” she said.

It was strange to be told something like that by someone I had never met before, but I didn’t know what else to do, so I silently lent her my shoulder to lean on. However, as my station got closer, I began to get worried.

“Which station are you getting off at?” I asked.

“Falling station…” she replied.

I couldn’t understand what she meant. “What’s a falling station?” I asked. “No, I mean what station do you get off the train at?”

“The station where you get off is the station where I will fall,” she said.

That scared me. Perhaps this girl intended to get off at the station where I got off and then commit suicide by jumping in front of the train.

I was worried, so I told her, “Please don’t fall.”

Then, she said something threatening. “I will fall if you get off.”

I didn’t have a choice, so I said, “I won’t get off then.”

She seemed happy. “Thank you,” she said. “Is that a promise? If you break it, you will fall too…”

She was creeping me out, but I wanted to keep her calm and stop her from committing suicide.

“I understand,” I said. “I promise.”

Just then, the train went around a sharp bend and shook from side to side.

I looked at her and suddenly, I understood all her inexplicable behavior.

But it was already too late.

I saw her fall… and then I fell too.