Ghost or Fog?

Egads! Anne and Harry are going to kill me for this really, really late post! I've been really busy, but this post has been at the back of my mind for quite a while already.

Last month I went to Tagaytay for dinner with some friends. Of course, the place we had dinner in had a fabulous view of the lake. The moon was a bit yellow, hidden behind a cloud, it cast rays on the lake. So I tried capturing it on camera. This is how it looked:


When I checked my idiot camera, I was surprised to see some fog on it. Looked around and found no one beside me. Then I immediately took another photo:


It was clear.

Strange, I thought. Could it be a spirit from the area saying hello? Promise, no one was beside me. Neither was anyone smoking. Egads.

Midnight Visitor – The Lady in White

My story happened many years ago, back when I was still in grade school. It was my parents’ wedding anniversary and they went out for a date. It was getting late but still no sign of them my siblings went to our room and slept since they have a class early the next day. Since my classes don’t start early I stayed in my parents’ room and waited for them.

I was watching tv minding my own business when a white figure came in from the door…it went through the door….I saw it with my own two eyes. I wasn’t watching anything scary that would trigger my imagination and make me see scary stuff in fact I was watching Looney tunes!

So there it was a figure dressed it white came in…the figure looked like a woman with the longest locks of black hair that I have ever seen. As she floats (yep, she was floating! She was moving without walking! I looked and I didn’t see her feet under her dress at all!) she stopped in front of me…my eyes were glued on her! And if that wasn’t freaky enough she turned and looked at my direction!

Her face looked dirty and her eyes were red and swollen. She was looking at me with her angry eyes. I lay there unable to move a muscle…it’s as if I was frozen! I looked down to check her feet again but all I see is a couple of inches blank space between her dress and the floor! I looked at her while she stared at me…there were millions of thoughts running through my head but I couldn’t seem to do anything. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cover myself with the blanket, I wanted to run to my grandmother’s but I just stared at her…that’s all I could do.

Then she turned away. I saw her pass through the wall that connects my parents’ room to my grandmother’s. Moments after the lady in white left me…I pulled the covers up and buried myself under it! Terrified with what just happened.

Realizing what actually happened scared me more! How come there’s a lady in white who could pass through doors and walls?! How come her face didn’t look normal?! Heck, how come she didn’t have feet? How come she was floating?! With these thoughts running in my head I noticed the wall clock it said…12:30 midnight.

When it is Dark, and Full Moon

My grandfather used to have a farm and fishpond somewhere in Bulacan. We’d go there every weekend when I was a kid. My brother and I would spend the entire day chasing dragonflies, swimming and hiking. It’s also where I had my first encounter with “The Almighty Cobra.” – imagine how I reacted! I was eleven-years old then. I didn’t run. I just looked at it, as I hold my breath the longest time I could ever remember. But that is not the scary story that I want to share with you.

It is when we spent the night at grandpa’s Palaisdaan. You see the place is really huge – eighteen hectares if I remember correctly, and utterly dark during the night for there is no electricity. Yes, no electricity. We stayed there because it is the Huli-night. We want to see how the manongs reap all the bangus and shrimps with their nets and cages. I was really amaze on how hundreds of fishes jump (for their lives) and tried not to get caught. It was an incredible sight, adding splendor to the scenery is the full moon’s glow.

I got bored watching them after a while. So, I told my brother that I’m in the mood for a midnight walk and he tagged along. We brought with us flashlights and our weapon of mass destruction – a not-so-thick but really long stick. Walk. Walk. Walk. Then we heard something. We stopped. And there it is again. It sounded like wings fluttering. He got scared (and so did I) but I told him that it was just the leaves of the mango trees, moving because of the midnight breeze or maybe, birds are playing on the trees’ branches. Acting like the brave kuya, I started walking again and he followed me. After a few minutes, a shadow. A big shadow covered the moonlight as we heard that fluttering sound again. Getting really frightened this time, we ran back to the cottage as fast as we could. Then we told everyone what happened.

Manong Jun the caretaker, upon hearing our story, told us that it was not the first time. He said that he usually sees something gigantic and has massive wings flying over the place during full moon. He said that one time, he actually saw that “thing” landed on the cottage’s roof and he is certain that it is no bird at all.

Eeeeehhhh…

Seeing the Unseen, Hearing the Unheard

I had lunch today with a fellow Bicolano who's father was my Mom's seatmate in school. It was our first meeting and what was notable about it was we got so comfortable our conversation turned to ghost stories. For some strange reason our IT talk on CDO turned to ghost stories.

We both agreed that the hotels there have ghosts like the one I stayed in last year for a roadshow. Upon entering the room I already felt a presence. Since I was so tired I just shrugged it off and ignored it, went out to have lunch with Jonas. Upon returning to my room I took a nap and got up to take a shower. There was someone in the shower. As I was taking a shower I could feel eyes boring through my back and it was awfully cold despite the warm water. I didn't feel though that it meant any harm. It just probably wanted to scare me off. So I managed to ignore it.

Good thing I was out the rest of the day for a speaking engagement and meet-ups. Ended up having dinner with Jonas at Limketkai and managed to go back to the hotel before midnight. I was too tired to mind the little child running around in my room. I couldn't see him, but I certainly felt him. I thought he just wanted some attention. What caught my attention was the noise from the disco across the street. It was so annoying that I just left the TV on mute. Of course, I had all the lights turned on as well.

I managed to get in a few hours of sleep, but the noise from across the street was still ringing on my ears when I woke up. Upon meeting my roadshow mates at the lobby I ranted to Jonas that it was so noisy outside my window. We were on the same floor and faced the same object of annoyance. He told me, "What noise?" I described to him the disco sounds that wrecked my slept. "There wasn't any," he said and said that the bar in front of the hotel was closed. "Looks like it burned down or something."

Oh my gawd.

Death's Sign

Is there really such a thing?

By the morning of November 2, ROSING's path changed sharply from northwest to a westward track and threatened to hit Catanduanes but its eye just skirted along the island’s northern coast, that evening and moved to target Northern Camarines Norte. Despite the quick strike, Catanduanes was heavily devastated. Threatening Daet, it moved again slightly west and made landfall by dawn of November 3 at Siruma, Camarines Sur which lies at the mouth of San Miguel Bay. One resident of Caramoan, a nearby town, spoke on what she witnessed during the passage of its eye.

"It was eerie," she said. "The moon and some stars went out during the calm moment with continuous flashing of lightning somewhere along the area surrounding the eye."

We experienced almost the same thing here in the Metro. The winds and the rain sounded really scary a lot of trees had been uprooted. It is scary to be outside during storms like this not only because of zero visibility but because of the roofs that fly by occasionally.

Finally the storm’s over. People went on their way fixing their houses and cleaning the streets.

That morning my brother went to my Uncle’s house to help him fix his roof. While they’re working my Aunt is busy taking care of my cousins.

As they work my brother & my Uncle were busy talking too…as they talk my brother looked up to my Uncle and saw something that changed his life forever.

A headless man…

My brother squints his eyes and was terrified to see my Uncle without his head on…”is that even possible?!” He asked himself. He tried to ignore what he saw and went back to fixing the roof. He was scared and he didn’t tell anyone about it thinking that it was only his imagination. “Could it be an ominous sign?!” He didn’t know and he didn’t believe in those things. After the roof is finally fixed he went home and my Uncle took a nap. Not long after when my brother came home from my Uncle’s house my Elder cousin came rushing to our house telling my Mom to hurry and go to my Uncle’s house…

Apparently my Aunt was trying to wake him up but he wouldn’t wake up no matter how she shook him…no matter how loud she called out to him.

They rushed my Uncle to the hospital and not long after he is declared DOA or Dead on Arrival. Cause of his death…”bangungot” or “According to the doctors, its acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis resulting (in) cardiac arrest.” In other words, he died in his sleep.
When we found out what happened I noticed my brother’s face suddenly went pale. He looks so terrified for some reason. When we asked him what was wrong he told us what he saw. My Mom’s best friend’s mother said my brother should have asked my Uncle about it. It might sound funny but this is what was my brother’s supposed to say, “Uncle, whatever happened to your head?! Where is it?!” According to the old lady in cases like this you should call that person’s attention about it otherwise he will surely die…because it’s an ominous sign…that death is at your doorstep.

The old Lady also told us that a couple of nights before my Uncle died she would hear footsteps of people coming in and out of the compound stopping near my Uncle’s doorstep and the dogs nearby would bark a howling sound so eerie. One night when it happened she actually looked through the window to see who the “visitors” were because it is very late…but she felt shivers down her spine when she saw no one but could actually hear the “footsteps”.

She said they were the actual ominous signs that death is coming…

Is there really a sign?! Can we really prevent death from happening if we managed to see the sign & do something about it like asking a man, “What happened to your head?! Where is it?!”

It’s up to you to decide.

Nighttime Runner

Hunger, thirst, or you just have to go to the bathroom. These are the things that wake us up during the night. If you have fridge or bathroom in your room then good for you, but if you have to go downstairs like me… hmmm…

I don’t turn on the lights whenever I go down because I might wake up my grandma whose room is at the first floor, right next to the kitchen. Feeling really hungry so I stood up and leisurely walk my way to the kitchen, using my mobile phone to illuminate my course. I was almost there when I felt something weird. I felt like someone is walking behind me. So I turnaround to check, but found nothing. Well I did see Zac (my dog) but he is asleep and is not moving a bit. I’ve made it to the fridge (finally!) and looked for anything that would satisfy my hunger. On my way back to my room, there it is again. I’ve had the same feeling in that same spot. The creepiness is really all over me this time, so I hurriedly went back to my room. I was about to sleep when I heard my ate (who happens to have a third-eye) arrived.

Morning. I was shocked when my ate told us over breakfast that when she arrived (that night), she saw a kid running in the kitchen. It was weird because there are no kids at our house. So she stayed a bit more in the kitchen just to be sure, she didn’t turn on the lights though. Then she saw the kid running again. This time, it is clearer. She was stunned to see a boy, who seemed scared and unhappy. But what was really disturbing is that he was colored green…

And yeah, I still go downstairs in the middle of the night after hearing that…with the lights on of course!

More on the 15F

It’s quite weird that there are a lot of “appearances” in that office building. It’s relatively new and I haven’t heard about any accident or mishap that resulted in death in that building. The area is also not known for such things. The only thing to note, however, is the fact that the building is across a church that has a masoleum in its premises. Oh well.

It was a Friday night and everyone left me behind in the office. I had to meet my classmates from the marketing research class I was taking. I stayed at the office to finish the iterations of the study we were making. There were only two other people in the floor – Manong Sonny, the janitor who was earning 30K per month and the Manong Guard. Manong Sonny was quite apprehensive about me staying late because he really didn’t like my room.

In my previous story I mentioned that I moved to several spots. I had it made when I was finally moved to a corner office! It wasn’t big, just about 12 square meters, but the Manila Bay sunset view was what always made my day (far cry from my garage view at my basement now heh). But Manong Sonny and the building maintenance people weren’t really happy that I was placed there.

I like well-lighted rooms. I even requested maintenance to add several fluorescents in my room. I thought it was too dark. One time while the maintenance guy was installing additional lights in my room he told me, “Ma’am ingat po kayo dito ha.” (Ma’am, be careful here.). I thought it was quite weird and asked him why. “Meron pong kakaibang nilalang dito. Kayo na po ang may pinakamaliwanag na opisina sa buong building at makakatulong po to.” (There is something different here in your office. Your office is the most-lighted one in the whole building, but this would surely help).

I didn’t mind what he said until a few days later the decorative stuff that hid the light came off and almost hit me on my head. I actually ran to Anne’s place and complained about what happened. The maintenance guy immediately showed up and said, “Sabi sa iyo Ma’am eh.” (I told you so.). I just shrugged it off and thought that it was because he didn’t hinge the thing properly when he installed the lights.

Eversince then whenever I stayed late – usually until 7 – Manong Sonny would check on me every so often. It was only on that evening that I was to meet my classmates that I understood what Manong Sonny and the maintenance guy was trying to tell me. I was happily being a nerd when I heard the tapping on the glass. I thought there was someone from publishing trying to get my attention – I was like in a fishbowl in my office, despite the blinds, everyone in the publishing section could see what I was doing. I then checked who was tapping the glass. There wasn’t anyone. And then I heard it again, it was to my right. I then thought my colleague who was situated in the next room was just dissing me. I knew she went home early and thought maybe she went back to get something. There was no one.

I called out to Manong Sonny and the Manong Guard, but they weren’t within earshot. I just then shrugged it off and continued my computations. Tap-tap-tap. I just raised my brow. Tap-tap-tap. Hmmm… The rapping on the glass continued and wouldn’t stop. I started praying and saving up my work. It was already way past ten in the evening and I thought the occupants weren’t really happy I was still there.

Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap.

I quickly shut down my PC and ran.