A Seminary School in Iloilo

I was 14 years old when my dad sent me to Iloilo to study in a seminary school. The seminary school was founded in 1869, so it’s like a sesquicentennial-year-old building.

Some priests and staff told us that the school is haunted because it served as one of the hiding places of soldiers during the World War II. I tried not to believe them kasi ayoko din takutin sarili ko, so feeling brave ako.

But one night, I woke up in the middle of the night sa dorm namin. ‘Yung dorm malaki, sama-sama lahat ng high school students kaso naka-by partition kami, 10 students per partition; tapos half ng room na yun,  may isang malaking hallway.

Tuwing gabi,  lights off at isang color yellow lang na ilaw ang nakabukas sa buong room. Sa dulo ng hallway, may stock room na laging nakasara kasi madaming gamit na pwedeng makuha dun. One night, nagising ako, I think it was around 3 a.m., biglang kong narinig ‘yung stock room na nag-open.

Biglang nagising ang buong kaluluwa ko kasi alam kong naka-locked yun—at sino naman ang kukuha ng gamit ng ganung oras? Nagdadalawang isip akong silipin ang stock room kaso biglang nagsara ng malakas yung pinto! Bigla akong nagtago sa ilalim ng kumot ko! Grabe yung kaba ko kasi ako lang yung gising at nakakaramdam nun. Nang may narinig akong naglalakad na may chain sa paa, dali-dali akong tumalon sa kama ng classmate ko—nagalit siya kasi ginising ko siya ng ganung oras. Noong sinabi kong may multo, naramdaman din niya at narinig ‘yung naglalakad sa hallway kaya nagtago kaming dalawa sa ilalim ng kumot. Hindi namin napansin na nakatulog kami.

Pag-gising namin, ang daming nakatingin sa’min at nagtataka kung bakit kami magkatabi sa iisang kama.

– Jaime Cabalum

A Campsite in Lipa, Batangas

It was our CAT team building weekend back in high school when this happened.

When we got to the team building’s venue, we immediately had our general assembly where the teachers and the owners of the campsite warned us that ghosts are wandering in the whole place; they also reminded those with the third eye should cover their eyes and be more cautious.  However, the skeptical guy in me—someone who does not believe in ghosts—simply waved it off.

While waiting for dinner,  our supervisor asked us to clean the male bathrooms. Out of the blue, while we’re cleaning, we heard some loud screams coming from the female camps;  we hurriedly finished cleaning and rushed to where the loud screams were coming from.

When we got there, the girls—with only bath towels around their bodies–were gathered outside; they claimed that some people were peeing in the female bathroom’s window. When we checked outside the girls’ bathroom, no one was there and a wall was blocking the way–there’s no way that someone would be able to pee there.

We just shrugged it off.

After dinner, while gathered around a campfire, my friends and I thought of wandering around the campsite. However, one of our classmates told me not to because she was seeing a white figure of a man loitering around the area. Persistently hardheaded, we ignored her warning!

We were having fun taking pictures while roaming around. Then we found a great place to stage a group photo. We took some shots, but when we checked out the shots, we saw white figures in two of the photos. The first photo captured a white form wearing a  straw hat of some sort. While the other photo captured a white smoke lingering around the picture, which formed a face of man. We were shocked by this and ran panicky and breathless!

We immediately deleted the photos—we were afraid that this could be a curse or something.

­– Von Pabalan

An Old Compound in Rizal

We knew that someone died in the old house we used to live in, but we thought that was many years ago—maybe the spirits are already gone–until I experienced several frightening episodes of sleep paralysis!

I still vividly remember that in one of those sleep paralysis attacks,  I found myself in a dark, foggy room where I saw a huge coffin in front of me. Too curious, I tried to open the coffin to know who was in there: Lying in the coffin, I saw two people I personally knew, which made me utterly frightened—I wanted to scream, wake up myself but I couldn’t! In my left ear, I was hearing a girl screaming. I also felt someone sitting on my chest, which made me short of breath.  I started to pray, and soon woke up and asked myself what just happened.

Frantically, I crossed over to my brother’s room and tried to sleep in a spare bed.

I thought the nightmare was over, but the bed started to move and shake like crazy! I literally jumped on my brother’s bed and woke him up. I told him, “Someone was moving my bed from underneath.”  My brother just comforted me, hugged me until I fell asleep.

In the morning, my brother didn’t squeal that  his younger sister might be crazy or was making silly stories, probably because he himself could see “dead people.”

– Jekelyn Nisola

Art: Jed Tupaz