The Red Room

Late one night, a taxi driver picked up a girl. When he asked her where she was going she replied she was going home.

“Please go straight down this road,” “Turn right there,” she instructed him as he drove on. During the journey, the driver sometimes gave furtive glances at her through the rear view mirror; the girl had beautiful shiny hair and seemed pretty, although he couldn’t see her face clearly because she sat with downcast eyes. He also found her quiet and demure manner attractive.

Before long, they reached a lonely and deserted hillside. The girl said, “You will see a house straight ahead.” And sure enough, a small old cottage emerged from the darkness. The girl got off, and the driver stayed and watched her go into the house. It was odd that a young girl like her should live in such a lonely, old place, seemingly all on her own. He was intrigued and instead of leaving straight away, got out of the car too and crept up to the house, feeling an urge to know more about her and see her face properly. He felt he was behaving improperly but could not help himself.

When he got close, he saw all the curtains were drawn and there was no way to see inside.

He circled around the house a few times but there was no attempt from inside to lift the curtains. He thought if he stayed any longer the girl might notice him, so he nearly gave up and left when the front door caught his eyes. The door had a large keyhole, which looked as though it would work just as fine as a peephole.

 He looked through the keyhole… but much to his dismay, all he could see was the color red and there was no sign of either the girl or any kind of furniture in the room. No matter how long he kept at it, the scenery remained the same.

He gave up looking… but still could not forget about the girl, so he stopped by the small restaurant he’d seen on the way to her house, thinking he could make a few inquiries about her there while having a meal at the same time.

He told the restaurant owner what had happened, even revealing (although he was terribly embarrassed) that he had a peek through the keyhole.

“I looked through the keyhole, but all I could see was something red… I know it wasn’t a proper thing to do.”

The owner, hearing that, looked at him strangely and told him:
“You know that girl… she has some sort of disease and her eyes are both crimson red.”