It happened 36 years ago. I was 12 years old when it happened.
Back then, the village our family lived in had a small river in the front and a low mountain in the back. It was a peaceful village in the countryside.
My friends and I were young kids who liked to play outside. We especially liked playing on the mountain in the back of our village.
When I was young, I played with marbles, tops or slingshots. Most often I just played with slingshots. We used to roam around the mountain with slingshots in our hand and practiced our shooting.
And one day...
I was playing with my slingshot alone. I started shooting at the trees and leaves around me as I strolled.
"Where am I?"
I had walked into the deep end of the forest.
I thought, "I had walked too far." So I was about to turn around and go back.
"What is that?"
I saw something sticking out from a small, shallow pile of snow. I walked towards it and slowly removed the pile of snow with my foot.
There, I found a few glass marbles which I could use to play games. Aside from those few marbles..
"What is this?"
Next to the marbles, I saw a worn-out and faded cloth doll under the snow.
I picked it up and thought, "I wonder who made this. That person did an awful job."
When I looked at the doll, I thought it was the perfect target for my shooting drills. So I put down the doll against the nearby tree right away. Then, I aimed at the doll with my slingshot.
I started to shoot marbles at it. I got so excited to see the doll falling backward when I hit the target. I kept shooting at the doll.
Then suddenly I saw someone. That person was staring right at me from a distance.
"What?"
I felt awkward for some reason. So I decided to stop shooting at the doll and climb down the mountain. I took a few steps.
Suddenly, I heard some thumps from bumping into something. I glanced back.
She was hitting her head on the ground in front of the snow pile where I was shooting marbles. That woman was mercilessly banging her head on the ground.
I was creeped out by the sight. The moment I began to hurry down the mountain, she began to chase me with a creepy sound.
"Help me!"
"Help me!"
"Is anyone here?"
I began shouting for help. She continued to chase me while making a weird noise.
I ran down without stopping and arrived at the mouth of the village.
"Help!"
I ran down while screaming. At least one elder of the village could have come out to check. But I didn't see anyone.
No matter how hard I looked, I couldn't see any villagers.
"How come no one is here?"
"Wait."
"Is it just me and that woman?"
And when I turned back, she was still chasing me at a high speed as if she was determined to catch me. So I ran as fast as I could toward my house.
During that period, it had already turned dark outside.
As soon as I got home, I tightly locked the gate first. But I saw someone's head pass by behind the gate.
So I hid. Then out of nowhere, I heard a hair-raising sound. I carefully peeked through the crack of the gate.
It was that same woman. She was wearing a long red dress. But as for the shade of red, it looked as if the dress had been soaked in blood for a long time. And it was quite dirty.
She was barefoot too. Her feet were covered in dirt.
For some reason, the woman didn't enter my house right away. She kept checking out the house. I was wondering why she was doing that. Then a thought crossed my mind.
We had a lot of talismans hanging at the top of our gate. I had assumed that the talismans were preventing her to come in.
(You can check out my original story. Its title is 'The Reddest Red')