My favorite game of all time is hide-and-seek. Especially hide-and-seek in the dark. We used to play it at every family gathering, running and ducking through the pastel rooms of my grandparents’ 3-story house. My family has lots of stories from those games, from the time my father made my grandmother wet her pants by dropping his hand down from the rafters, to the time my uncle hid in plain sight, sitting perfectly still in the corner of the dining room.

Now that we’re grown up and everyone’s knees aren’t what they used to be, we don’t play so much anymore. The size of New York City apartments (and enthusiasm of talkative pets) makes it difficult for my husband and I to get a game on with friends. But I miss the rush of creeping through the house, tucking into corners, and holding my breath. On the days when I’ve done nothing but sit inside and stare at a screen, I miss it very much.

Fortunately, necromancy is here to help. 

A gift from Japan

Like many scary things, Hide-and-Seek Alone (or Hitori Kakurenbo [ひとりかくれんぼ]) hails from the Island Kingdom. It’s a list of instructions for a summoning ritual, dressed up as a “game.” 

The name is a bit of a misnomer: You aren’t the only one who will be playing. But you will be the only one from the mortal plane.  

Hide-and-Seek Alone first appeared on the (now dead) site Encount in 2007. A horror documentary picked it up, then Occultic.net, and then, when it was really gaining steam, the Japanese version of Yahoo! answers. The blog Saya in the Underworld translated it into English on September 16, 2008. That’s when the game exploded, copy-pasted from site to site in a flurry. Hide-and-Seek Alone has since faded into obscurity, but the instructions are (obviously) still out there. 

And now I’m reposting them here. It’s as easy as ever to follow internet advice on welcoming the dead into your home! 

The complicated rulebook

As with any summoning ritual, Hide-and-Seek Alone has several rules that need to be followed if its player wants to stay alive. 

As with anything on the internet, those rules vary from site to site, and can be a bit confusing.

Here are the broad strokes, with major variations called out. 

Equipment

• A stuffed doll. This will get possessed and start walking around and hunting you, so I’d choose something on the smaller side. Most sites say that it needs to have limbs like a human would (so your Beanie Baby Hissy is off the table). But most also discourage using anything that looks *too* human, as this can encourage the possession of other things that look human. Or are human.
• Rice. I love rice even more than I love mashed potatoes. Apparently spirits do too.
• A needle and red thread. And possibly a few Youtube tutorials, if you don’t know how to sew.
• A sharp-edged tool. Here is where a major (and potentially life-threatening) variation comes up in the instructions. Some say you 100% need a tool sharp enough to cut the thread (such as a knife or scissors). Others say you 100% need a tool dull enough that it would be hard to hurt you (such as a mechanical pencil). The reasons will become apparent in a minute.
• A cup of salt. Natural salt would be best. You might want to buy a whole bag of it, because some instructions make it sound like you’re going to need a hell of a lot more than a cup. 
• A hiding place. And you better be sure it’s a good one.  Most instructions say you should hide in a room with a working TV. They also suggest you purify that room with incense (no idea what kind–can ball out with some Nag Champa, I guess) and ofuda (a talisman used in Shinto and Buddhism. If that’s not your thing, you can use a religious object of your choosing. Or a secular one that borders on the religious, like a Funko Pop).

Preparation

1. Remove whatever stuffing the doll has and replace it with the rice. 
2. Clip your nails and put them in the cavity as well. Unclear if you need to do all of your finger and toenails or just one. It is clear that it should be nails, *not* blood. 
3. Sew the doll up with the red thread. This represents veins. Once you’re finished sewing, you’re supposed to tie the doll up whatever thread is left. 
4. Pour water into a bathtub. (Or a sink.) I hope your hiding place isn’t in the bathroom.
5. Place a cup of salt water in the place you plan to hide. Careful not to knock it over. It’s the one thing (other than not doing this ritual at all) that might save your life. 

How to start it

Hide-and-Seek Alone must be truly played alone. Involve anyone else, and the spirit might decide to inhabit them instead of the doll. If you don’t live alone and someone is home while you play, some instructions suggest shutting them in a room and blocking the door off with a heavy line of salt. 

Many also warn to leave all the windows and doors to the outside unlocked, in case, you know. Something goes wrong. You might want to have a cell phone on hand for the same reason. But I’d suggest keeping that bad boy on silent, and the light as low as it will go.

1. Name the doll. Don’t give it your own name, or the name of anyone you know. 
2. Wait until 3 a.m. As anyone who has to get up to pee in the middle of the night knows, that is when the spirits are strongest. 
3. Say three times to the doll: “[Your name] is the first ‘it.’”
4. Place the doll under the water in the bathtub. (Or sink.) 
5. Turn off all lights in the house, switch on the TV, and head to your hiding spot. I would never hide in a room with a light source like that normally, but the TV is about to come in handy. Make sure that it is playing something, rather than just sitting on the homescreen.
6. Count to ten with your eyes closed, and then return to the doll with the edged tool. 
7. Say, “I’ve found you, [Doll’s Name],” and then stab the doll. Some instructions say that this is where you cut that red thread, releasing the spirit to come play. But you see where this is going. You stab the doll when you “find” it, and then if the doll finds you…
8. Say “You are the next it, [Doll’s Name],” as you return the doll to the water. 
9. As soon as the doll is down, book it out of there and hide. 

Nothing may happen for the first few minutes, even for the first hour. Don’t let that make you feel safe. Remember: Little stuffed feet don’t make a lot of noise. 

This is where the TV comes into play. Apparently spirits mess with the signal, so any distortions will alert you that you’re no longer alone. (One video often attached to the instructions ostensibly shows this in action, though it’s so subtle that I didn’t notice a difference.) No word if spirits only mess with traditional cable; let’s hope that us non-cable types haven’t cheated ourselves out of a tool.

Once the game starts, you have to see it through. And you have to do so within 2 hours. Otherwise, you’re going to have a permanent new friend. 

How to finish it

1. Pick up the saltwater and put half of it in your mouth, keeping the other half in the cup. Do not swallow it, otherwise you’re going to have a lot more to deal with than an upset stomach. 
2. Get out of your hiding place and start looking for the doll. All the instructions note that “The doll is not necessarily in the bathroom.” Whatever happens, do not spit out the saltwater until step 3.
3. As soon as you find the doll, dump the cup over it and spray it with all the saltwater in your mouth. 
4. Say “I win” three times.

Then the nightmare should be over. Dry the doll out, and then burn it and put the ashes somewhere far away. (Some say you should also mix those ashes with salt and put salt in every corner of your house.) It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, 2, 3, 4!

Tag, you’re it

Want to experience the joys of Hide-and-Seek Alone without risking a tracheotomy? There are plenty who have done it for you. 

I don’t buy the majority of the stories, but they are fun to scroll through. In one Reddit account, they don’t follow key parts of the instructions, using blood rather than nails and playing with two people. The doll not only finds them, but drives a kitchen knife into the narrator’s friend’s eye. The friend’s reaction? “Oh no! I swallowed the saltwater.” In another account (this one on Youtube), the dude follows the instructions, but goes a little over the top at the moment when the doll supposedly comes out with a loud stock sound effect of children playing/giggling backwards. If it was really a spirit, it wasn’t a very original one.  

One account I do believe, though, is that of the Youtuber who details the instructions, but says that she would never play. You never know who might be listening, she points out. You have no control over who you might be inviting into your home. 

Playing hide-and-seek with the dead is slightly different than playing it with the cousins you just had a whip cream fight with the night before. Most likely I will never try it. But who knows? If I have a sore throat and am gargling salt water anyway, maybe it’s worth a shot. 

Do you have a foolproof hiding place? Super sure it’s foolproof? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

You can sign up for updates from me here, which include fun extra tidbits not shared in the posts. This month’s letter features an alternate version of the game, with a whole lot more at stake than getting stabbed by a stuffed bunny…

IMAGE CRED: Ion Fet for the lamplight, Tracy Jentzch for the lovely doll, and Alex Blăjan for arms wide open. The rest are from the good folks at Canva. 🙂