Scary stories that even elementary schoolers can enjoy! Short tales that still send a chill down your spine
Want to enjoy a little thrill with friends at a sleepover or during break time? In those moments, don’t you think short scary stories are just perfect? They’re not too long, easy to share, yet they send a chill down your spine.
These perfectly balanced spooky tales are sure to get everyone excited, even if elementary school kids just read them aloud to each other.
So here, we’ve gathered short scary stories that even elementary schoolers can enjoy.
Read them secretly under the covers at night, or tell them in front of everyone.
Get your heart racing as you think about your own way of telling them!
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Scary stories kids can enjoy! Short yet spine-chilling tales (1–10)
Robert the Cursed Doll
This Robert doll is said to have been the model for Chucky from Child’s Play, and it wears a sailor outfit.
It’s a type of doll that was treated like a human and came to be believed to possess a soul.
After it was given to a boy named Otto, it was said to make footsteps and cause various strange phenomena.
After Otto passed away, it was sold along with his house, and it is reportedly now on display in a museum.
If you have the chance, it might be fun to come face-to-face with the Robert doll.
Things on the road
People often encounter yokai on the road.
Thinking that way, doesn’t the usual road—especially at night—start to feel scary? Among the relatively harmless yokai you might meet on the road is the Ohaguro Bettari.
This yokai appears as a woman with a featureless, smooth face with no eyes or nose, bearing only a large mouth blackened with ohaguro.
If you call out, “What’s the matter?” she turns around, grins broadly, and startles people.
Since wearing ohaguro was also a sign of being married, it gives her an air of subtle suggestiveness, doesn’t it?
Give me food, boy.
There’s a yokai called the “Gimme-Rice Boy.” Just passing by it is enough to get possessed, and you’ll keep eating until your stomach bursts, even if you’re already full.
They say this yokai is a collective grudge of those who once died of hunger for some reason long ago.
The way to exorcise the Gimme-Rice Boy is to make it eat an exorcism rice ball brought in from the spirit world.
Once the spirit realizes that no matter how much it eats food from the human world it will never be satisfied, it can pass on.
It’s a frightening yet heartrending yokai, isn’t it?
Scary stories kids can enjoy! Short but chilling tales (11–20)
Clinging Konaki-jiji
Konaki-jiji is a yokai said to cry like a baby on a dark road at night; when a passerby, feeling pity, picks it up, it gradually grows as heavy as a stone, clings to them, and takes their life.
In GeGeGe no Kitaro it’s portrayed as an ally, so it doesn’t feel frightening, but in reality it’s a terrifying yokai, isn’t it? It’s said to have originated in the mountainous regions of Tokushima Prefecture, but perhaps there’s a moral embedded in it—that while children are adorable, raising them is difficult and can weigh heavily upon you.
faceless ghost (Noppera-bō)
The noppera-bō is a yokai that looks human in appearance but has nothing on its face, smooth like a boiled egg.
Some believe it’s actually a transformed tanuki or fox, but the terror of thinking you’re looking at a person only to find they aren’t human is considerable for anyone who encounters one.
This legend of a faceless ghost has been found across Japan since long ago, and although it is said to do no harm beyond frightening people, the mere absence of the face you expected to see feels quite terrifying in itself, doesn’t it?
The Truly Scary Ittan-momen
When you think of Ittan-momen, you might picture the character from GeGeGe no Kitaro, a dependable companion who carries people around, so it may not seem all that frightening.
That said, this yokai—said to have originated in Kagoshima and sometimes thought to be a kind of spirit—is actually quite scary: it’s said to wrap its cloth around a person’s neck, cover their face to suffocate them, and fly at night to attack people.
There are also theories that it’s actually a will-o’-the-wisp, a white cloth hung in a graveyard, or even a Japanese giant flying squirrel.
Yashiki Baba
This yokai lives in an abandoned mansion and chases anyone who enters.
It serves a didactic purpose: if someone says, “If you sneak into that dangerous old building by yourselves, the Yashiki-babaa might appear,” kids might think twice about going in.
In old Japan, when parents or adults couldn’t persuade children, they often invoked ghosts or yokai to make an impact and get them to obey.
Fear of the unseen can be truly terrifying, after all.