Ghost Stories
In every culture all over the world there is a common belief in the supernatural. Stories and accounts of hauntings, sightings and interactions with a world that is invisible to the naked eye have been shared and passed on since the beginning of written history. Accounts of ancient gods and monsters, ghosts, and all sorts of otherworldly creatures fill our history books and even make their way into our modern lives. Many common themes are shared by different cultures, most notable are the stories of ghosts who are said to be disembodied souls of those who have passed on but remain on earth. There is also a shared knowledge of nature spirits who are protectors of the environment, often portrayed as mischievous beings who, just like people, can lean on the side of either good or evil. The Bible talks about the Nephilim, an evil race literally descended from fallen angels, who after their mortal deaths remain on earth as evil spirits or demons and continue to plague humankind in different ways up until today. Whether its happened to you or someone close to you, everyone's got a creepy story to tell. This halloween we delve into the realm of the supernatural and ask people to share some of the scariest experiences they've had with hauntings, ghosts, Doppelgangers, Kapres, and other things that go bump in the night.
Dindz Teston
In the 90's when we were still kids in high school, my sister and I had weird experiences in one of our bedrooms at our house in Rainbow Village, Las Piñas, which was like 15 years old then. It was an ordinary school night, my family had settled in to their own bedrooms hours after dinner--mom and dad at the yellow room (master bedroom), my sisters at the pink room and me in my blue room. That night I was listening to spooky nights at Magic 89.9 FM as part of my nightly routine, which I considered my sedative. As I was falling asleep in my shallow state of slumber, a cryptic voice whispered in my ear and said, "BAKIT DI KA NATATAKOT?" (Why aren’t you afraid?) The voice sounded like it came from a tall dark man more likely described in our folklore as a "kapre". As I heard the voice, I jumped out of my bed and ran to my sisters’ pink room and forced myself to sleep in between them since their beds were next to each other. I didn't sleep in my room for months because of that. My other sister also had a similar experience in my blue room when she was having a late afternoon siesta. It was around 6pm, she was sleeping on my bed with her Nokia phone on my side table when suddenly its’ beeping sound woke her up. Realizing that she was alone in my room, she then realized that it was the sound of someone playing “snake” on her Nokia phone. She suddenly jumped off my bed and ran outside towards our living room. Until now she still wonders who was playing with her phone while she was sleeping...
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Another story is from our ancestral home in Sun Valley, Parañaque where my mom's side grew up. We lived in that old house for quite some time... It was late at night when I felt like drinking a glass of water. My room then was on the 2nd floor and I had to take the stairs down to go to the fridge.
When I was about to take the last step off the stairs I got goosebumps since I think it was already past 1am and I have always considered that to be part of the devil's hour (12-3am). When I was about to step into the kitchen, I glanced out the window at the outside part of the house where there was a really old kamias tree and saw a yellow-like stone as big as an ostrich egg that was beaming with an amber glow. The one thing that gave me chills was that as I was staring at the stone it suddenly changed into a dwarf that had his eyes closed. In shock, I ran back up the stairs even though it made a lot of noise and locked myself up in my room. I never went out for a drink again during those hours. Also, some of my friends that also lived in the same village told me that every time they passed by our house they would see an old lady's silhouette from one of our bedrooms upstairs-- I just told them that that was probably my great grandmother who loved our house and was just looking after us.
Kaye Nidea
This happened to me one day in my Grandmother’s house in Makati with my husband who was then my boyfriend. We were arguing about something downstairs and in my frustration, I began to cry and went upstairs to clear my head and let the emotions pass. I also went up so that my family wouldn’t see me crying. I went up to the second floor and I left the lights off as I sat on the couch to hide my teary eyes. Suddenly I heard someone going upstairs and I peeked to see if it was my boyfriend. It was my uncle. As I looked I saw the figure of my uncle, who was slim and had a short haircut. The dim yellow bulb was behind him so I didn’t really see his face but I knew it was my uncle because there were no other men that would go up the second floor besides him because his room was on that floor. Before he reached the last step, I fixed my face to wipe the tears so he wouldn’t see that I had cried. Afraid that he would ask me what I was doing there crying in the dark, as he reached the top I hurriedly went past him down the stairs when he suddenly asked me in a low voice, “Anong ginagawa mo dito?” (What are you doing here?). In a hurry I replied “nothing.” I realized on the way down that I didn’t really see the person I was speaking with, all I saw was a shadow. I thought he would turn the lights on which is why I quickly went downstairs. When I got downstairs, I saw my boyfriend amused and pointing his finger at someone while laughing. I asked him what was so funny since we were just arguing before that. He said that uncle was funny and was making jokes. I asked him “uncle who?” and he replied “ Uncle Ed”, while pointing to a person from behind a wall. I said that was impossible because I had just spoken to Uncle Ed upstairs. I looked behind the wall and Uncle Ed was indeed there. I wasn’t scared at first because I felt like I was talking to a person, but in bed that night I couldn’t sleep because the low voice of the figure I was speaking with kept playing in my head.
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Second story, my dad asked me to buy a cigarette at the store nearby. I was asked to return a frying pan to my Auntie’s house so I decided to bring it on the way to the store. From a distance, I saw my cousin who lives in my aunt’s house and called out to him for him to bring the frying pan with him to save me a trip to my aunt’s. As I called out to him he just looked at me and walked away. I got frustrated as he walked to the dark alley ignoring me. I shouted at him saying “John ano ba?! Pag may hihingin ang galing, pag uutusan di mo mautusan! (What’s up with you John?! When you need something you’re so good, but when someone’s asking you for a favor, you can’t do it!) But he just stared at me again and walked further in to the dark part of the alley. I decided to just go to my Auntie’s house and just bring the pan myself. When I got there I knocked on the door and when someone finally opened it, I was shocked to see my cousin who I was just running after a few minutes ago in the alley. I asked him. “Bakit nandito ka? kausap lang kita kanina ah, paano ka nauna sakin? “ (Why are you here? I was just talking to you! How did you get here before me?) Then he said “Anong pinagsasabi mo ate? di pa ako lumalabas ng bahay!” (What are you talking about Ate? I haven’t gone out of the house yet!) and I angrily told him “Nakita kita! tinatawag pa nga kita nakatingin ka lng sakin kaya nga naasar ako!” (I saw you! I was even calling you but you were just looking at me so I really got mad!). And then my cousin said, “Tumigil kana ate! Mag-isa lang ako dito wag mo ako takutin!” (Stop it Ate! I’m the only one here please don’t scare me!). The conversation was cut short when he said that he was going to sleep already. I couldn’t believe what happened until I thought about the incident that happened in my Grandmother’s house.
The worse part was, the next day I went to see my cousin again to convince him that it was really him that I saw in the alley. I got goosebumps when I saw what he was wearing. He was wearing the same outfit when I saw “him” in the alley the day before.
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This happened in my maternal grandmother’s house in Lipa, Batangas.
During a family get-together, I went outside to get some air. When I got outside, I noticed my cousin’s father-in-law, smoking a cigarette in the front porch.
After a while, my cousin and her husband Roy arrived. Roy went home to their house (the house was next door) and my cousin went in my grandmother’s house. When I saw her I told her that I saw Roy’s dad a while ago outside and she just said, “Ah really!?”. After awhile Roy came back from his house next door and joined us. My cousin told him, “B, Nakita ni kaye ang Daddy” (B, Kaye saw daddy) Surprised, Roy said “Huh? Wala ang daddy kagabi pa!” (Huh!? Daddy’s been gone since last night!) I even described the outfit of Roy’s Dad to him “He was wearing a white sando and blue shorts and he was sitting in your planters!” Then Roy’s face changed and got worried because his dad was wearing the exact clothes she described the night before. Roy’s dad was on his way to Davao or somewhere in Mindanao. He called to check up on him and Thank God he was okay. This was the last time I experienced such incidents.
Rebecca Domingo
I was wandering aimlessly, I couldn't believe the chaos around me. Dead bodies scattered, medics busy extracting people under rubble, nurses carrying stretchers with bloodied bodies. I was trying to figure out what happened when the ground beneath me shook so violently that I sat up abruptly perspiring. Thank God it was just a dream, rather a nightmare. I was breathing heavily and wanted some water. I heard something in the bathroom, somebody was taking a shower, I could hear her faint humming. I asked myself who the hell was taking a bath at 2am when we just had gone to sleep by 12 midnight. I turned on the bedside lamp and looked at the other bed, there were four of us in the big room and we were all in bed, so, who's in there? then I noticed the sudden silence in the bathroom. I couldn't force myself to go check the bathroom without waking the girls. The bathroom's floor was wet and the room smelled of fragrant soap that was not ours. One of the girls told us she had the same experience the previous night but didn't bother to tell us so as not to scare us. We transferred room at 2:30am.
Backgrounder: This was in 1995, the advertising congress was brought back to Baguio City several years after the big earthquake that killed many people and leveled several hotels/buildings in the city. It is a 4-day event attended by delegates from all the sectors of the advertising industry. During the preparation period when we had to go up to Baguio for ocular inspections and meetings I always felt a presence especially in the hotel rooms. I forgot the name of the place, it was a big house made into a small hotel but it's no longer there. Sometimes I had to spend the night alone so I had to leave the light on the whole night. I could feel them but I don't see them 'cause if I did, i'd die!
Owie Pascual
I never believed in ghosts, but there were a lot of stories I’d always hear from my officemates. I remember I was working overtime and I was the only one left in the office. I saw a guy walking out from the balcony carrying an itak (jungle knife). During that time, the office was under construction so I thought it was a construction worker that I had seen, only to find out that when I checked with the guard if there were workers still in the office, that everyone had left for the night. So I’m not quite sure if it was a ghost I saw or something.
ChEY Faenconi
This story is about my friend from the other side, Robert. It started about the early 2000's when my lola gave me a bed she bought from a closing hotel. It was a double memory mattress, it was very comfortable for the first few months. A few nightmares now and then, but I ignored them thinking I was just tired… until it got worse. I began having sleep paralysis more often. He first showed up using my mom's face, he kissed me on the lips and it was like I was really awake. When I woke up I asked my mom, “Ma, why did you kiss me earlier while I was sleeping?” She then told me, “I don't even have the keys to your room what are you talking about?” So I just ignored it. As I took a quick shower I felt someone touching me on my back and while watching TV in my room I would feel something stroking my hair. I was awake and was not dreaming anymore. It freaked me out. Day after day the nightmares and sleep paralysis continued, to the point that I didn't want to sleep anymore, if I was sleepy I would push myself out of the bed and sleep at my parents’ room. I thought maybe the house where we lived in Cavite, was just haunted- until we moved to another house in Manila. The nightmares continued till I grew out of it as if it was a normal thing. The man in my dreams was still with me when we moved out. My insomnia worsened. I'd only sleep when the sun was already up. One dawn I was talking to my friend on my phone and I went outside for a smoke while talking to her. As I was about to enter back into our house, my friend on the phone asked me, “who are you with?” I said, “me?” The building was dead silent since it was almost 4 in the morning. I told her wait don't answer that until I get inside. She told me that she heard a man's voice ask: "SINO YANG KAUSAP MO?" (Who are you talking to?) We were both creeped out, and I told her it must have been Robert my friendly ghost. We eventually threw the bed out and my nightmares stopped although Robert never really went away up to this day now that I’m already living in Korea. He would call me even when I'm awake with a deep deep voice or I see his shadow once in a while. Just the other day I stumbled out of the bed and suddenly there was this very deep voice who said my name “CHEYYY”. Thought my husband must've been home early.., but there was no one but me and my lil girl... and ROBERT...
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My boss and I were on a hunt for a new space, since her business was expanding. Luckily we found one. It was an old building though, but it was big and had 2 floors, and the good thing was it was very cheap for an office space in Manila. As we were looking around, the caretaker told us that we could go upstairs, but he would just stay downstairs coz his knees were hurting. We didn't mind though, so we took a quick look upstairs and the rooms were really big with big windows. It was a really good spot. Cheap, big and just needed a few furnishings, so my boss didn't think twice and leased it.
After refurnishing the office, it still felt old and dark but it was not a big deal for us since we work graveyards, and most of my officemates were used to fighting the sleepy feeling. Whatever we did, the place was just always gloomy and sad so my boss decided to take us on team buildings and she threw an early Christmas party so the vibe would change. Employees got closer, jokes and pranks while working, the vibe changed… It was happier than before.
But I don’t think the one who was left within the old office liked it... she then started to make a move.
One night our team joker was late, he was in a rush while going upstairs and while opening his PC he said that he bumped into something on his way up though he didn’t see anyone or anything. We just laughed because we thought he was just joking, but he said it was not a joke. He said that his back hurts, as if someone scratched him. He lifted his shirt up and true enough there were marks on his back, long hard scratches from below his nape down to his waist. It was scratched so hard that some scratches even had small droplets of blood.
That was just the beginning.
Every 2-3AM the floor tiles downstairs would start to sound as if someone were walking on it, even if all of us were upstairs.There were size-10 footprints on the bathroom tile with toe marks at the very corner beside the toilet. And it was just a pair of prints in that corner, not all over the whole bathroom.
One night our boss invited us all for lunch. That was around 2 AM, so we all went except for the newbie who said that she was not hungry and that it was okay if she was left alone in the office because she didn’t believe in ghosts. That night she became a believer. As she was singing along with the music playing in the office, someone sang with her. She was so pale when we came back. She said a woman’s voice whispered in her ears and said “I'll catch a grenade for yah”.
We were all eating lunch down stairs and then there were 3 knocks coming from the front door. It was double locked and click click... We were all staring as the locks turned... and creeeekkk the door slowly opened... but no one entered.
My friend and I were left in the office so I could finish my reports. Too tired, we slept in the office. Then “she” came and showed up… in my dreams. She was in an indian-sit position, back turned against me above my head. The background was all in sepia as if it was in a 70's or 80's movie. The building looked like what we had seen when we first saw it but it was new as if it was just made. Her hair was long and black and she was wearing white but she was not a white lady.
She was slowly turning towards me, she would move every few seconds and as she turned her face started to change from beautiful to burned… like burnt wood. I was screaming in my dreams for help like I was trapped. I was screaming for my friend to help me, "Ate jinggg ate jingg tulonggg , ma, gisingin nyo ko" (Ate Jing, help me, Mom, wake me up!) I was praying for help and kept on pushing myself to get up or move but I couldn't. I felt so helpless and so tired while watching her and just as she was about to show her whole face, I was able to wake up..
The next day I told my boss about my dream. Since it had been occurring more often, she decided to ask the caretaker who had been there since the 80's about the place. The caretaker revealed the story that in the early 80's when the place was just built, someone burned it with a lady trapped inside.
Every night they would hear a loud scream coming from that old office… with or without tenants, she would let someone hear her screams..
They said the lady never left… and that she would never leave...
Kevin Cortes
This story came from the eldest brother of my friend. They were in college back then. If I remember correctly his brother studied in DLSU. Their class had a retreat in the Teachers camp in Baguio City. On the last day of their stay, his brother together with 3 of his friends decided they wanted to sneak out and drink. So that night after their final session the 4 of them snuck out. Since drinking was not allowed and they didn't want to get caught they searched for a place and found an abandoned cottage somewhere secluded. The cottage was old and empty so they formed a circle and sat on the floor and drank. Later that night while they were drinking there was a blackout. It was pitch black inside that small square room. They all got scared remembering all the haunting stories they heard about Teachers Camp. They tried to go back to the main lodge but it was so dark that they feared that they might get lost in the woods so they decided to stay in the cottage and wait it out until the sun came up. They came back and sat right next to one another. Soon they all felt sleepy so they made up a game to keep themselves up in that pitch-black room. The room had four corners; each of them picked a corner and sat there. The first person had to get up, walk to the other corner using the wall to guide them, then tap the next person sitting in that corner. The second person now stands up and goes to the next corner to tap the third person there, and so on and so forth. They completed the rotation until the sun came up. They went back to the main lodge, tired and smelling of booze. Later when they got back to Manila they realized something. Now sober they thought carefully about what had happened that night and they all asked themselves how were they able to complete the rotation with just 4 people?? Think about it.
Ylette Reoma
I can still vividly remember my first encounter with what they call the supernatural. I was still in high school when it happened. After school I went to my mom's office. She works as a principal in one of the schools located in Intramuros. It was past dismissal time when I arrived at my mom's office, roughly around 530 to 6pm. While waiting for my mom finish her paper works, I felt the urge to pee, so I asked my mom to accompany me to the washroom. The one inside her office was under construction so I had to use the one outside. She didn’t accompany me and told me to go there on my own. So I left her room, walked the corridor, passed all the empty classrooms and finally I reached the comfort room. I was about to go inside when I suddenly saw an old man sitting just outside one of the cubicle doors. I decided not to go in anymore and immediately headed back to my mom's office. While walking back I kept on wondering what the man was doing inside a washroom for girls? I told my mom what happened. She just listened and didn’t bother to check. Finally mom finished with her work and we were leaving the school. Mom talked to the guards who did the rounds, asking them if there were still other people inside the school aside from us. Apparently everybody already left the school and it was just my mom and I who were there plus the 2 guards. After a month, my mom told me that they had cases of possessed students. The students said that they were possessed by an old man. Maybe it's the same old man I saw that night?
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A lot of people say that our house is kinda creepy. Two of our kasambahay (helpers) told us that they could hear footsteps of someone walking in our living room area past midnight. One night, as I was making telebabad (having long conversations on the landline), something scary happened. You see, our landline is placed near our sliding door that is adjacent to the comfort room. There's a big mirror just right outside the comfort room. While I was chatting with my friend at around 11pm to 12mn, an image in the reflection caught my attention, which made me hang up the phone. A white lady was standing behind me. I saw her in the mirror in front of me. Since a lot of other unexplained things had been happening, we invited a family friend who was good with paranormal activities to visit us and light some incense and cleanse the house. And yes she confirmed that there was a white lady right outside our sliding door and that my third eye is open.
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This happened in our province - Hilongos, Leyte. I was still in grade school when it happened. My dad and I went out for a motorbike ride. It was a smooth ride until we reached a very dark street with a very huge balete tree. All of a sudden the engine stopped. My dad kept striking the pedal to start the engine but it didn’t work so we both decided to walk thinking that maybe there was no more gas. We kept walking looking for the nearest gas station, past the old cemetery. When we finally reached the gas station, my dad asked the attendant to fill up the motorbike but when the attendant opened the gas tank, we found out that it was still full. When my dad turned the engine on it immediately started. Goosebumps all over.
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This story happened to me in college. We were having theology class when one of my classmates who was seated behind me started poking me. Every time she’d poke me, I would turn around to stop her. She playfully did it a lot of times. When I turned around for the nth time, I noticed someone sitting in one of the chairs at the back row reading a newspaper. Thinking that maybe he was an assistant teacher (it's an all girls school and I noticed that he was wearing black slacks). I told my classmate to stop because she might get caught by the assistant teacher. When my classmate turned around there was no one there.
Jendie Legaspi
I can’t recall the exact date when this happened. It happened in a hotel in Czech Republic, where we were staying. I can’t even remember the name of the hotel, which floor or even the room number anymore. I was sharing the room with my cousin whose third eye is open. What I remember is, I saw my cousin staring at the bed while I was on the phone by the desk talking to my then ex-boyfriend. She went to the bathroom to take a shower. When she came out of the bathroom, she was surprised to see me talking on the phone and asked why I was already awake. I told her that I was on the phone long before she went in the shower. The creepy thing is that she told me that she saw me lying sideways on the bed. All of a sudden, we noticed a very foul smell. A different kind of smell. It was very strong! We asked the receptionist to move us to another room. In the new room, my cousin went ahead to sleep while I was watching the TV until I also fell asleep. I woke up a little and turned to the other side and slightly opened my eye. To my surprise, I saw a soldier sitting on the floor looking very tired with his head down. Because I was so scared, I closed my eyes and never opened my eyes to check if he was still there until I was fully asleep. I will never forget that! The next day when we were checking out, I overheard our travel guide telling our tour group that the exact location of our hotel was actually a war zone. No wonder! I told the tour guide about what I saw and he just told me it wasn't the first time that that happened. Geeez!
Anonymous
I don’t remember my exact age when my third eye was opened… I didn’t really care about it at all, (at first). I grew up in a conservative, typical Filipino family. We would go to church every Sunday; I’ve always believed that miracles happen through prayer and I may not understand everything or life in general, but I have my faith.
Anting-anting or amulet - you can find different ones in my pocket, my school bag, wallet or even a pendant for my necklace. I was still young then and whenever my parents would give me anting-anting, I would listen and follow what they say. I never questioned them and the meaning of anting-anting, but all I knew was that it was all for protection: to drive away evil, to keep me from danger, etc. In my teenage years (14- 16 years old) different people would come to our house and show us all these anting-anting and even do some rituals to drive away evil. This started when our helper and caretaker both felt something unusual in our house. One of my family members even shared his own story. Some manggagamot, albolario (not sure if that’s the correct term), or espiritista came to our house and answered every single thing we asked him correctly. It was the first time we met him but he knew everything and explained clearly what was happening in our house - all because of his third eye. That gained him our family’s trust. We talked deeper about third eyes and my dad and older brother were so interested, that the espiritista invited us to go to Mount Banahaw where it is possible to have your third eye opened (with the help of a medium).
The whole family came along and the plan was really to open my dad and brother’s third eyes; I knew I was there just to be able to see the place and be cleansed spiritually in Mount Banahaw. When we got there, we followed every rule that we were told, like: no cursing, be quiet, greet everyone you meet along the way because you’ll never know if that is an encanto, don’t make fun of anything, etc… and a reminder that “this is a spiritual journey.” It was truly a journey. A long one. We had to walk, go up and down the steps, and would light a candle every time we stop at a saint or statue. Finally, we arrived at a batis (small river) where the ritual was going to happen. The medium/espiritista, just like when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, would submerge each one of us while reciting a prayer in latin.
There are a lot of stories about Mount Banahaw, ones that cannot be explained or answered, and it remains very mysterious. For me, it was very strange that every time I would light a candle as an offering to the saints/statues, it would take many tries for me to light it (this didn’t happen to the rest of the group), and I had to catch up every time because I didn’t want to get left behind. When it was my turn to be baptized, from sitting on a rock to taking my first step on waist-level water, I felt like I was drowning each time I would take a step closer to the espiritista. It’s like I didn’t know how to keep my balance and would trip or fall every step I took.
I was baptized again in Mount Banahaw. It really felt like I was cleansed, and the water, after the long walk, was really so refreshing. As my family and I were just resting and sitting down on the rocks, the espiritista was looking at us one by one. He told my dad and brother that their third eyes opened, but not too clear for them to see. He then looked at me and said, “Sayo yung bumukas.” (yours was the one that opened.) I doubted him for a moment, thinking “How can my third eye be opened when I don’t see anything else but you (the group).” I imagined having a third eye, seeing what we see in horror films, that everything is really visible and you can see the “other dimension” very well. It was not like that at all. Having a third eye opened, is just another gateway or opening for you to see/feel/hear/smell what others don’t or cannot, but it takes a lot of practice; and opening your third eye doesn’t mean that you can “see”, sometimes you can only feel or just hear or smell… or all of those, if your third eye is really strong.
The espiritista wanted to test and make me believe that my third eye was opened. “Tignan mo yung malaking bato na ‘yun, pikit mo yung mga mata mo… mag focus ka, may makikita ka puti na maliwanag na maliwanag parang ilaw, doon ka mag focus… sabihin mo sa akin kung ano makikita mo.” (Look at that big rock and close your eyes. You will see a bright light, focus on that. Tell me what you see.) I followed what he said, as I closed my eyes, I saw it right away. It was really white (compared to just closing your eyes and it’s pitch black… even when it’s bright outside and it hits your eyes. This one was really different, it’s like seeing a white cloth in front of me - that’s what I saw with my eyes closed.)
“Opo, nakikita ko yung puti na liwanag.” (Yes I see the white light.)
“Sige, mag-focus ka at makikita mo kung sino yung nandoon.” (Okay focus and tell me who you see there.)
After focusing and really looking (with my third eye), I saw a woman on top of the rock. The white long cloth is what covers her… I didn’t see her face, but she did not look scary at all and for me, I felt that she was such a nice person just basing it from her stature.“May babae po?” (There’s a woman?) I asked the espiritista.
He then replied with a smile, “Si Mama Mary.” (It’s Mama Mary)
Jehn Domingo
I've had my share of ghost or paranormal activity stories while growing up. But my most memorable so far was when I was a freshman in UPLB. I lived outside the campus so I did not worry about curfew. I was free to roam inside the campus anytime after school, even late at night. The dormers on the other hand, had curfew. I think they were not allowed to go out of the dorm past 10pm. So, most often, whenever there were students still roaming the campus past 10pm, you would know that they were not UP dormers.
Since I was a freshman then, naturally I would hang out with my blockmates or dormmates. We lived far from our families. So after school, if we were not at our dorms studying, we were always out exploring restaurants, bars and the campus itself.
So one night, we decided to go to our auditorium. We call it DL Umali Hall. That's where concerts and other performances happen. We were I think 8 persons then. We heard stories that in its basement, there were ghosts. So we went down and scared each other for fun. We ran up and down faking our screams until after a few times one of my friends actually saw one so we stopped. We decided to just hang out and people watch by the front stairs of DL Umali.
Fronting DL Umali Hall was our open field called Freedom Park. Dormers walk to this path to go to and from the dorms. So at around 11 pm or 12 midnight I think, there was a couple walking towards our direction. We wondered why this couple was still out like us. As they got nearer to where we were, we noticed both of them were wearing white. The man seemed to be wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and the woman wore a long white flowy dress. We did not find that weird. But what we found weird was their pace. They were walking fast in an unusual way. And then we noticed that there was like a shadow under their feet although we didn’t see any feet then. We noticed that they walked too fast, they looked like they were floating. Then we started asking each other "Tao ba yan? Parang hindi." (Are those people? It’s like they’re not.) Some of my friends said "Tao yan." (They’re people) We also noticed that we could see right through their clothes. We just kept on watching where they were going. We were actually on our toes because we were scared that the couple might walk to us directly.
They kept walking/floating too fast. Their feet didn’t even seem to touch the ground. Walking past a big mango tree, the couple stopped. They then walked again, passing under the shadow of the big tree. We were waiting and waiting for the couple to walk past the shadows...but the couple never reappeared. They disappeared in the shadows.
All of my friends then concluded, "hindi tao yun." (Those weren’t people.) We all ran as fast as we could.
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I used to work in a marketing department of a hotel in the south. In the marketing department, I had my own office. Inside my office was a full-length mirror. Outside of my office were my 2 staff. They’d always tell me that they would feel strange whenever they were in my office. I didn’t believe them at first. There were times that I would lock my door if I wanted to concentrate on my work. Once my staff would see that my door was shut, they knew that I was inside working, not wanting to be disturbed.
One day, they were both at their desks. My door was locked. They heard some noise coming from my room. It sounded like someone was fixing some papers. Suddenly, there was a big bang like someone dropped a very heavy book on the floor. Both of them were worried so they knocked on my door to check on me but when they opened the door, no one was there. After a while, I came in and they were shocked to see me outside the office because of all of the things they heard. They told me the story but I didn’t get scared and even joked them that they should talk to “them”.
Then there was another incident, but this time the door was not closed and they could still hear noises from my room. It sounded as if I was inside, typing on the computer and fixing papers. They didn’t bother to check it because they knew I wasn’t there. What my staff did was she held out her phone by my door jamb and recorded everything. When I arrived, they made me listen to it and I was like “Sh*t! so it’s all true!” I heard the keyboard, the papers and the creepiest of all is I could hear someone walking. The flooring of my office was wood so you could really hear the sound of the footsteps. After that incident, I never worked overtime and asked to remove the full body mirror.
Budj Kwek
We've all heard work ghost stories before. My story is not much but it is true. It might have been a figment of my imagination but I seriously doubt it.
I have been a trainer for a BPO company in Makati for 9 months now and as early as the 1st week in this new environment, people already told me the story of Jun Jun. He was a trainee that all of a sudden stopped attending class and was found dead somewhere in Laguna. I know, anti-climactic right? People said weird things started happening after that. Sudden noises, lights turning off, monitors on standby suddenly come to life, etc… I never paid attention. I don't easily get scared. Well not until recently. Just so you would understand our training room set up that day, imagine you were the trainer and you have your class in front of you. To your right is the door to the training room and to your left is a beautiful view of the Manila skyline which also serves as a mirror when the lights are on because you have a clear reflection of the entire room with this window. So the room looks bigger than it actually is. I rarely get assigned to this room because I prefer the one near the clinic and the pantry.
2 months ago, I was handling a class of 17 agents and I had been with them for 2-3 weeks already and I knew each and every one of them. While we were doing an activity I suddenly felt uneasy. Like something was not right. I didn't know what it was but we kept doing what we were doing. Everyone was laughing and participating when I suddenly noticed in the reflection of the room that 1 trainee was facing the opposite direction where everyone was focusing on. He was wearing the same clothes that 1 of my trainees always wore (black and yellow jacket). I didn't think too much of it at the time. I didn't notice how wrong it was at first. I then suddenly realized that the trainee who always wore that black and yellow jacket was right in front of me, facing me and participating in the activity and was just wearing a blue shirt. I looked back at the room's reflection and there he was, the 18th trainee, wearing a black and yellow jacket, a smile from ear to ear, Eyes wide and clapping intensely. He was hunched over and every clap had force behind it. He was looking at me through the reflection, clapping and walking towards me. And just like any scary movie I looked at the class, he wasn't there, I looked back at our reflection and he was gone. I never saw him again. The worst part was the guy in the reflection looked like me.
Lorie Balili
When I was in elementary school in Nueva Ecija, My mom asked me to buy something in the store. Our house was beside a school, and the whole school was adjacent to a huge vacant lot with 2 big mango trees on it. Those mango trees were there long before I was born. That night when I was on my way back from the store, around 500 meters away from our house I started running back because it was so dark. I was in front of the 2 mango trees but what I noticed was I wasn’t moving forward! It seemed like I couldn’t get away from the lot with the trees even as I kept running as fast as I could. I was only able to escape when my dad suddenly called out to me. My dad said there was a casket hanging on one of the trees. I will never forget that. And every time we pass by that lot we always get goosebumps. That vacant lot where the mango trees are in is on a curved road and where many accidents also take place.
Arvi Tito
The story happened on my way home from a job site. I was riding an Uber then. We were coming from Ortigas Cor. C-5, I asked the driver to take Ortigas Ave. > EDSA > P. Tuazon. When Waze picked up the route, I just told driver to follow. So we were going through the inner streets leading to Aurora Boulevard. Browsing my Facebook, I quickly glanced at where we were and I saw that we were just a few meters away from Aurora Boulevard because I could already see the LRT line. I went back to browsing Facebook but after a while I noticed that we were still not going through inner streets. I asked the driver, "Kuya di ba Aurora Boulevard na yung kanina? Ano nangyari?" (Kuya, wasn’t that Aurora Boulevard already? What happened?) Driver: “Mam, hindi ko nga din po alam, kanina pa po ako nagdadasal kasi kinikilabutan na po ako. Akala ko po kasi hindi niyo napansin!” (I don’t know Maam! I’ve been praying constantly because I’m getting creeped out, I thought you didn’t notice.) Me: “Hala kuya, parang na-miss natin si Aurora Boulevard.” (Oh no! Seems like we missed Aurora Bouelevard already)
Driver: “Actually Mam, may mga kaibigan din po ako na may similar stories na ganyan.” (Actually Maam, I also have friends with similar stories like this).
It was like we went through a portal that made us miss the intersection and we were led to the other side. After following the road, we were finally able to see Aurora Boulevard. I got home safely, but was definitely spooked. Even my Uber driver.
Looking at the map, the green line is what we were supposed to take. But we ended up going around the red line before we finally got to Aurora Boulevard. and only after I checked the map did I realize that we were around the Balete Drive area.
Chantal Amistad
Growing up, I never saw nor believed in ghosts or strange creatures. Some people claim to have a ‘third eye’ but my family and I doubt these kinds of stories. Well this happened a couple of years ago but it’s still very vivid in my head. It had been a long day, my coworker/neighbor and I just got off work at around 10pm. It was a daily routine that we would hang out outside our houses before going in. Just like every other night, we walked around our village. But this night was different. As we were walking by the creek, I noticed this little girl around 8-10 years old about 10 feet away from us who was bent over like she’s picking up something on the ground. We continued walking, and as she was bending, she mysteriously transformed into some sort of dog. I couldn’t believe what I saw! When my friend and I made eye contact, He ran away so fast, and instinctively I ran too. When we finally tried to catch our breath, I asked him what he saw and we both confirmed that we saw the exact same thing! We were freaking out about what just happened, it was so bizarre. The next night I got a call from my friend, he saw the little girl again. Only this time, while she was still bending over, it ran towards my friend. Backward.
Mini Maglahus
I'm the type who never gets scared easily with ghost stories. That's why I rarely experience “encounters” with the unknown.
It was during my freshman year in a university exclusive for women, where I stayed in the university dormitory. We had already been hearing stories of a little boy who loved to disturb students by shaking their beds and bang on the walls. So early one morning around 4am I woke up when one of my roommates entered the room. There was just one dim lamp that was open. Seeing her, I asked her if she just arrived from her house. She did not reply but instead left the room again and shut the door loudly that it shook the wall. My other roommates did not feel the shake and as I was still sleepy, I just dismissed her behavior. Then around 7am while I was prepping for my first class I saw the same roommate enter the room with all her bags. Confused I asked her if she just arrived. Her answer was yes. That's when I shared to my roommates what happened because I didn't want to believe her, especially since they were both the same height and had the same short hair. Then I just realized that maybe it was the little boy who loves to play around the dormitory. And I realized then that my other roommates did not hear the loud door and did not feel the shake of the wall when the playful ghost left the room.
John Basa
2005 - I was assigned to open up an office in Baguio city. I went ahead of the team and I arrived after lunch. It was almost night time so I immediately tried to find an apartment near the office, and I managed to get a 2 bedroom with kitchen and bathroom transient home which I rented for 10 days. Location was just 5 mins walk away from the office. But it was a basement unit. And that time it was fuckin cold. When I got in my bedroom I saw that there were 2 bed. 1 single and 1 queen with a side table separating the 2 beds. It was a bit cramped for 2 beds but it would do. I Set myself up on the queen bed then placed my clothes in the closet. I then went out for dinner and drinks all by my lonesome. Just drank a few beers to make me tipsy and have a good night’s rest. Took a bath then set myself up for bed time. Set my alarm clock, then turned off the lights. Lied down. Then suddenly I heard a sound inside the small room I was in. It was coming from the other bed . You can tell no one ever uses the single bed because there was still plastic wrapped on the mattress under the linen. So the sound was a crumpling sound of plastic like someone sat on the bed then slowly lied down. This entity was beside me on the other bed and less than a meter away. I gathered my courage and stood up and opened the light, looked at the single bed and no one was there. I was afraid and my heart was pounding double time hahaha. Told the ghost "please naman wag nyo na ako takutin 10 days pa ako dito" (please don't scare me i'll be staying here for 10 days) opened the closet and got all my stuff and threw it on the other bed. Then went back to bed. Nothing ever happened again in that house. I was in Baguio for 9 months and there were lots of unexplained moments in that city. My officemate went home from a party. We were now in an apartment near Greenvalley. From what I remember from his story. He took a bath then brushed his teeth and when he was looking at his reflection while brushing, he felt something eerie and different about his reflection so he stopped. He closed his eyes then looked again. Seemed normal again. So he continued on brushing, but this time his reflection stopped while he was brushing. He closed his eyes again then when he looked, his reflection’s eyes were like those of a demon that it was bloodshot. So he closed his eyes and prayed "glory be". He then opened his eyes and saw that his reflection was moving his head side to side while mocking him with a voice you only hear from possessions saying "glory be glory be glory be" "gusto mo baliktarin ko pa?" (Want me to recite it in in reverse?) He immediately ran to our room. We were asking him what happened. He was all white so we just let him be. We could not speak to him for 2 weeks because he had bad breath from not wanting to brush his teeth anymore hahahha. Kidding aside, its all true.
Denise Ballesca
A few years ago, my mom was a magnet for unnatural and mostly scary occurrences. Her attacks started when she was starting out with becoming a Christian. They stopped happening after awhile when her faith was fully strengthened with Christianity. She had a ton of stories but two significant ones stuck with me ever since.
So, there's two routes to get home to our place coming from the north. One time, my parents came from Manila so they took the Lopez exit into BF Homes Parañaque from NAIA-Sucat road. This route takes you through Tropical Ave. where you have to pass through this one dark scary road where the ruins of an old hotel lies, what used to be known as the Tropical Palace is now mostly covered in tall overgrown vines crawling all over what's left of the facade. My mother is usually the one that drives and my dad stays in the front passenger’s seat. Since they usually come home in the wee hours of the night, my dad would see to it that he stays awake to keep my mother company. He chitchats away just to keep my mom from falling asleep at the wheel. This one particular night, as my mom turned left on that dark scary road, my dad was cut short and suddenly dozed off mid-story. As soon as my dad fell asleep, my mom noticed a pair of headlights in her rearview mirror coming from a little further away behind them. She didn't think any of it and just drove on. She felt a shift in the atmosphere when the headlights behind her seemed to have been trying to catch up and started swerving left to right trying to overtake her. Only then did she notice that the headlights that were chasing her were round shaped like those of old cars from back in the olden days. Also then, she noticed that what usually took her only a few seconds to reach the end of that particular road seemed to have been taking her forever. It was pitch dark that night with the only lights coming from her own headlights, her instrument panel, and the pair of headlights chasing her. After what seemed like forever on this darkened road, she finally reached the end where the only lamp post stood, when my dad sprang back up to consciousness and continued where he left off with his story. Also there, the headlights disappeared. I guess, this story doesn't really sound so scary at all. Maybe because I failed to mention this one tiny detail.
While she was watching the headlights from her side mirrors, no matter how dark it might have been, she shouldn't have only seen the creepy round headlights. She should've also seen the body of whatever car was chasing her. But there was none.
On a different day, It was just my mom coming home from Greenhills. Since she was alone, she didn’t want to go through the Tropical Avenue Route and get chased by the headlights again so she went through the Elizalde Route. There is this all gray building with a dead tree on it near NSHA. I think the building is called Calle Elizalde. It was the wee hours in the morning so there weren’t much cars on the road anymore. Right as she was in front of that building, it seemed like she was made to suddenly look at her rearview mirror. What she saw was a guy sitting in the backseat but she could only see his forehead. He was dark, full of wrinkles, curly messy hair and had thick eyebrows.
Good thing she unconsciously leaned on the armrest of her door and accidentally opened her window. The gush of air from outside kind of brought her back to her senses, or else she might've gotten into an accident. Which is usually what these ghosts supposedly do to their "victims".
She drove in the same high speed all the way home even on turns… She jumped out of the car as soon as she parked and left everything on. She asked my dad to go back out and turn off the car without telling him about what she saw.
Anonymous
My family and I lived in an old house in Equitable Village in Las Piñas. Many unexplained events happened to my family while we were living there but the experience had started when my wife and I got into a fight one night. There were 6 rooms in the house, 4 rooms upstairs. While arguing I went upstairs to cool my head. I went through the corridor and lied down in one of the rooms. While I was lying down in one of the bedrooms, I heard her footsteps in the corridor and from behind the wall I heard her yell “Putangina mo! Lumayas ka na! Dalhin mo na lahat ng damit mo!” (Son of a bitch! Go away! And take all your clothes with you!) and so I left. Several days after, we finally got to talk. She was distraught because I was gone for several days and she didn’t understand why. I was puzzled because she clearly told me to leave. According to her, she never said those words and she never went to the second floor that day when we were fighting. When I came home we talked in the bedroom when suddenly we heard a disturbance in the bathroom as if things were being thrown around. When I went in to check, all the contents of the medicine cabinet were now in the toilet bowl and the waste basket was thrown across the bathroom. Something or someone copied my wife’s voice to get me to leave the house and it seems it wasn’t too pleased with our reconciliation.
When we first moved in to the house, our eldest son was 13 years old. We had just come back from a bible study in New Life regarding the Power of the name of Jesus over evil spirits. That night, my son was in his room when he suddenly saw a disembodied head beside his stand fan. He was frightened by it but he was able to recall what he had learned in the service he had just come from so he shouted, “In the name of Jesus Christ, Get out!!” when he said that, the head started to spin like a flying saucer and suddenly disappeared. My other son on the other hand, saw a headless figure leaning on the wall of his room, facing him. He was so scared that he threw all of his pillows at it one by one but they all just went through the headless figure. He got so scared that he just hid under the covers. After many frightening experiences, my family wanted us to move out. I told them we were not going to be able to find any other 6 bedroom houses for rent for only 6,000 Pesos. I told them that the name of Jesus is more powerful than a million devils. I told them we are not leaving this house, they are!
We ended up staying there for 13 years. It was relatively peaceful except for some random hauntings every 2 years or so.
My sister once brought a priest with psychic abilities over to help cleanse our house. Before he could even step out of the car he looked at the house and said, “Ang dami nila!” (There’s so many of them!) As he entered the living room, he kept swatting at his pant legs. I asked him what was wrong and he said “They keep pulling at my pants”. I asked him what do they look like and he said “they look like small monkeys”. In my mind, I was thinking that is nothing compared to the things my kids would see. There were Tikbalangs, Kapre, White Lady, even a man with a head of Kalabaw (water buffalo). My eldest son must have had 50 experiences all in all. So as the priest was going around the house, every time he’d enter a room the only thing he kept saying was “Ang dami nila!” He said all the seats in a train wouldn’t be able to accommodate them all. I’ve since introduced this priest to a lot of friends and I’ve accompanied him to a lot of cleansings, the only time I saw fear in his face was when he was at my house. He usually stays to eat at blessings and cleansings but that day in my house, he had to leave immediately because it was so overwhelming. The priest said our house was some sort of portal or a gateway to another place. We finally moved out 13 years later due to problems with the plumbing. After we finished moving our belongings, I went through the house one last time to check if we left anything. I went through the main door, through the house, and out to the back door and out the yard. I tried to go back in through the back door but it was like there’s an invisible barrier at the door and I couldn’t get in. It seemed something was stopping me from going back in the house. All the hairs on my body stood on end so I decided to just leave through the side instead. That was the last time I ever stepped foot in that house.
Jao Guiao
After a dinner visit to one of our friends, my buddy Mark and I were on our way home to our village. We decided to cut our tricycle ride short by asking our driver to drop us off at our village guardhouse and just walk our way to the village park since it was summer time and we just wanted to hang out with our friends.
It was around 9:30 pm as I can recall and the street leading to our village park was very quiet but we paid no attention to it since we were used to always hanging out at around that time. While we were talking on our way to our destination, about 200 meters away from us we saw a person swinging alone in the carriage swing at the playground. The carriage swing can accommodate at least 4 persons at a time, two persons facing each other, but at that time we only saw one person.
As we moved in closer I was like, “Hey bro, I wonder who’s tripping alone and swinging like someone is pushing him on the other end?”
“I don’t know bro, I cant really see who that person is, wonder who that is?” Mark said.
We are about to get to the park but we can still couldn’t tell who the person was and noticed that the swing was swinging so hard that we were wondering who could be trippin’ out like that.
We were 100 meters away and closing in when we began to notice that the park and the freaking swing was empty and the person we thought trippin’ out was not actually there.
We quickly looked at each other and silently questioned our thoughts.
“What the F*#k?!” we both screamed at each other, like we were about to lose our minds.
We started to run away while we got goosebumps all over.
“Did you see that sh*@? “ asked my buddy Mark while running away.
“That is freaking scary AF, bro!” Mark claimed.
We were both in shock and even tried to go back again and as we were about to get a better view of it, we saw that the swing was already at a full stop.
This experience made us believe that there really are ghosts lurking in dark places like parks and even if you’re not alone they will still make you feel their presence. Anyone can experience these sightings even if you don’t believe in ghosts like we do.
Anonymous
This happened in our house in Parañaque. Our family had been very close but in this phase of our lives something was different. We were always fighting and arguing so we felt that there was so much bad energy going around our house. At the peak of all the negativity we asked our Aunt who was a devout Christian to help cleanse our house of all the negative energy. My aunt and her companions asked us to form a circle, hold our hands together and close our eyes. Together we prayed to God to cleanse our house and rebuke the evil spirits also residing there. The atmosphere got really heavy and my sister began to speak in tongues. In the middle of everything happening my brother couldn’t help but open his eyes. He began to scream and panic because he saw a man standing beside him but all he could see was a black shadow. My aunt asked us to pray some more and strengthen our faith. After our prayers they asked us to throw away any clutter and things which could have negative connections such as our old mirror, a painting of the horses, my brother’s Chicago bulls memorabilia (Because of the horns) as well as our figurines of women and angels. They warned us that bad energy breeds in filthy places.
Ronnie Parde
I work as a flight attendant for an airline in Dubai. I used to live in this apartment called 21st Century. I lived there with 2 other flatmates. Our flat was made up of 3 bedrooms on one side of a corridor and a Laundry room, bathroom and kitchen on the other side. The sequence of the rooms from the main door is C, B then A. My room was C, the one closest to the main door. My flatmate on B was on vacation and my other flatmate in room A was on a flight. One night at around 3am, I was in my room talking to my friend in Manila on Skype. It was 7am there and he was in the office. My door was a bit ajar and the light coming from the laundry room was the only light illuminating the corridor. When we were talking I suddenly heard the main door open, the dragging of the suitcase, closing of the main door, the rolling suitcase going through the hallway and in to Room A which was at the end of the corridor. I even saw his shadow under my door as he passed. I told my friend that my flatmate just came home from a flight. An hour had passed and my friend was getting busy with work and I was getting hungry as well, so we ended our Skype conversation. I went to the kitchen to grab some food and sat in the living room to watch some TV. Few minutes later, I heard someone trying to open the main door. I thought to myself, who is this trying to open our door since flatmate A had already arrived from a flight and flatmate B was on vacation. I thought maybe it was another crewmember trying to open the wrong flat. When the door opened, I was shocked to see it was my flatmate A wearing his uniform with his cabin bag and suitcase on hand. I really shouted and got really scared. He also got scared and went up to me and asked me what was wrong. I told him that he already arrived around 3am. I heard everything, from opening of the door to the dragging of suitcase and to the closing of his room. I was so sure because I was wide-awake talking to my friend on Skype. My flatmate suddenly burst into tears and told me that it was a bad omen. There were sleepless nights in that flat after that incident. So what we did was, we consulted some friends and mediums. They told us that as long as I didn’t see my flatmate’s face it’s okay, nothing will happen to him. They also advised us that while you are sleeping, the door of the room should be closed and that you shouldn’t leave corners of the house in total darkness.
Anonymous
I used to supply records for one of the clubs that my uncle used to own back in the day. The club, which had been renamed and repurposed quite a few times over the years, had this reputation of having peculiar incidents happen from time to time. Talk of objects moving, glasses breaking, and dark figures catching the side of one's eye were popular tales at the time -- but these were quickly dismissed on a personal level, as I never really experienced anything creepy… until that one incident.
People always thought that the club was just this small hallway of sorts, an assumption easily made when viewed from the outside looking in. In reality though, the place was a cavernous space, with the said hallway leading up to a set of doors that introduced the main dancehall.
Inside, it was pretty obvious that the main focus was the club's huge dancefloor, as everything was positioned around it. A bar at the western side, the DJ's booth at the far northern end, and seats/tables lined all around this pretty big wooden floor.
From the DJ's booth, one could see 4 pillars that boxed-in this dancefloor(which easily held 300+ partygoers). These pillars, which were squarish in shape, were covered in glass all around from top to bottom. It was widely reported, that the southeast pillar, which obscured the dimly-lit VIP area when trying to squint at it from the DJ's booth, would sometimes reflect or cover, depending on your position, some type of movement - even when no one was in that area. It was because of this, that staff members would never hangout in this area when they would come in the afternoon for their daily briefing sessions.
On a weekly basis, I would bring in anywhere from 10-20 new records for us DJs to audition and assess. This would mean that I would have to come in at roughly 3 or 4 in the afternoon after class so that we'd have the club all to ourselves for roughly 2-3 hours without bothering anyone yet.
On one particular day, only two of us were available to come in early to test these records out on the club's proper sound system. We were actually 2 DJs, and 1 bartender(who loved to come in and join us for these sessions) at that time. Normally, the process would be for one of us to hold the main doors open so that light could seep into the club, while the other person would walk all the way into this small pathway at the side of the DJ's booth, which in turn led into the kitchen and stockroom. This was always the first step to take when kickstarting the activities for the day as it housed the club's circuit breaker. Basically, the first person to arrive had to walk into the darkness and turn on the power - which was situated in this area right behind the DJ's booth.
On this day, I clearly remember our bartender holding the door for us as the other DJ and I walked in. I didn't hesitate at all and made a beeline for the area that housed the power supply, as I knew the other DJ would turn on the tivoli lights and sound system as soon as he heard the loud clicking sound these circuit breakers made when turned on or off. There was obviously no one at the back area at the time, as I had to switch on the emergency lights so that I could see my way.
Our bartender was fixing us some drinks as we started to audition the records. What happened next was a blur. All I could remember was that he, our bartender, was trying to catch our attention with his arms before all the lights went out. Actually, the lights flickered incessantly for a few seconds, while the turntables lost power - yet, it was still emitting a warped, slowing-down sound since the sound system still had power.
Then total darkness.
And then the sound of all the switches of the circuit breaker started clicking in succession.
I never ran as fast as I did that day.
After we caught up with him outside, our bartender - now white with fright, said that he saw someone's face on the southwest pillar smiling at him. He was signalling for us to check and see if we saw someone there from our vantage point at the DJ's booth.
I never came in early after that.
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We used to live in this moderately-sized, two storey house back in the day. Built back in 1962 by my grandfather, we were one of the first few homes on our block. Everyone on my mom's side grew up here, and the fondest memories we've ever had was when we were living there.
As far back as I could remember, there was always something there living with us. This became more apparent the older I got, when people started moving out. By the mid 90s, I was living there alone with a caretaker who doubled as a cook. Since I had all the freedom in the world, I would often switch rooms every couple of months only because I could. I found out that the boys room upstairs in the second floor, the very room where my older brother and I grew up in, and the one that I would convert into a music room had an imp-like spirit residing in there. There would be days when records would go missing - only to resurface at the exact same place I had stored it in days or weeks later. Things would vanish in that room, but I knew that it would reappear. It was the "special property" of that room.
Eventually, I would find myself settling-in in this room on the first floor that we called the nursery - or Tito's room. It sported tiled floors which meant that the room was always cool, and sunlight never seeped in since the window was facing north. It was half the size as the boys room upstairs, but it presented the perfect conditions for the night owl in me who hated the heat and didn't want to walk up a flight of stairs after a long night of DJing or drinking. The only downside I saw was that it had two doors: one that connected the room to the hallway on the first floor, and the other one(it was directly in front of the other door and beside the windows), which gave me easy access to the north side of the house -- an outdoor area which basically served as the spot where we would hang our clothes out to dry. This posed a greater security threat than any other room in the house, for obvious reasons, and I quickly resolved the issue by barricading that door with a heavy bookshelf. I figured that I'd have enough time to ambush whoever was trying to break-in thru that door. I had a lot of baseball bats in that room.
Over the years I would throw a lot of parties at the house. I would have friends come over and stay the night, and would also go on to get to know some people, acquaintances really, a little bit better during these sessions. One person that sticks out in my memory was this former colleague who came to the house one time. I knew this person to be a particularly flamboyant party animal, but I noticed how reserved and uneasy he felt when he was inside the house. When we were the only ones left after that night of drinking, he confided that he sensed specific spirits in different pockets of the house. Normally I'd laugh stuff like that off and blame it on all that booze we drank, but he had me hooked when he asked me if I ever lost anything in the music room on the second floor.
Based on his observations he surmised that there were 4 major spirits that roamed the house. Two dark, one white, and an imp-like spirit. We all knew about the imp-like spirit on the 2nd floor, but what surprised me, and later made sense, was where the other 3 were. The first of the dark spirits, according to him, inhabited one of two golden coconut trees beside the porch area. It never made much sense back then, but in hindsight, it was the only tree that didn't grow on our yard. He said that the spirit was dark, but that it recognized me.
The second dark spirit was more "noisy" and expressive than the first one, and I would actually hear it on a daily basis… I didn't know that it was making its presence felt, as I would always interpret the sound I heard as a stray animal walking thru the foliage outside my room(yes, we had a lot of strays walk in and out of the house back then). Actually we had an avocado tree back there when I was little, and the story there was: when my mom's older brother passed away, they found a baby diaper hanging in one of it's branches. They later deciphered it as a sign that my uncle wanted everyone to watch over my older cousin, Tito, who was about to be abandoned by his mother.
Anyway, I remember that we started to experience all these weird sounds at night after the tree fell down after a storm knocked it down years later. The most recent incident was about two years ago before we sold the house. My mom's sister, who had moved back in after living abroad, swears that she heard small footsteps running on the roof on the second floor. And when it got to the edge of the roof, it then started to walk on the wall heading down to my room.
The third one, the only "white" spirit he sensed, resided right outside the door that led to the clothesline area. It was a female and was responsible for keeping me safe all these years.
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When my father passed away I started getting calls from this weird Chinese lady. I don't want to stereotype people, but she sounded like those old spooky Chinese characters that would often play the role of a seer or some mystic in cheesy horror movies. Quite literally she would speak tagalog with that heavy Chinese accent - and immediately you'd think she was this old lady based out of Binondo, who was secretly killing bats for their blood and wings and brewing up potions under her store that sold traditional Chinese medicine. Yeah, that kind of lady.
Anyway like I said, I was receiving these phone calls immediately after my dad passed away. It upset me cause she said she had been talking to my dad. You see, my dad experienced a very tragic death, and I was in no mood whatsoever to listen to all that shit. Everytime she called, I'd hang-up on her. The second I heard her voice, or even that weird reverb that would emanate every time she called - it was an automatic slam.
I dunno what possessed me to stay on the line one day, but when I did she just opened with: "ma-ra-me e-spi-ri-to ba-hay mo. Isa ba-ba-e sa la-bas ng kwar-to. Pag tulog pina-pa-no-od ka. Ma-ba-it e-spi-rito. Ta-tay mo ka-u-sap ko. I-yak ng I-yak. Maling ka-ta-wan ang na-ku-ha nyo." Click.
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2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.e.
