THE ELEVATOR ORDEAL
(Ivy)
I have a very active sixth sense. I have had many encounters and this is just one of them. I've been working for the same company for some time now our building has several sets of elevators. We never use one of the elevators that are located on the other side of the building because it's only services up to the 20th floor and my office is on the 31st floor. However, all the elevators stop on the 12th floor where the office fast food is located. This particular day, after lunch my friend and I decided to go down to the ground floor to smoke at the park, across from the office. Since we were going down anyway, we can use any of the elevators to go down to the ground floor. This particular day because we decided to use the set of elevators that is located closest to the cafeteria exit. The doors opened and we clearly saw that the arrow was pointing downward...but to our surprise when we got into the elevator, it began to ascend up. Suddenly the elevator stopped at the 16th floor and when the doors opened it were pitch black. We heard what sounded like a girl crying. We were dumbfounded because it's impossible for anyone to be in that area, since that floor is completely abandoned. My friend kept frantically pushing the close button, but no matter how many times she pushed that button, the elevator doors just wouldn't close. Because we were stuck like that for about ten minutes already, I just closed my eyes, expecting the worse. Finally I opened my eyes and while the cries were still very audible in the distance I pushed the close button in one last effort and the doors finally closed. We descended down to the ground floor in peace and went on to the park to smoke. We were both pretty shaken by this and from that day forward, never used that elevator again!
MOTHER'S ENCOUNTER
(Rudy)
This story was told to me by my mother when I was much younger, but old enough to remember details.
It took place in their rented house in a rural town in the southern tip province in the Philippines. My mother had just given birth to her second child (oldest sister in the family). My father was in a job site in the mountains (the very reason they had to live in this part of the country), hours away and came home only on weekends. During those times in a place like that, the residential telephone was unheard of, and so communication was not only a problem; there was none. The postal mail or the telegram was the only means of long distance communication and the word-of-mouth message was how news and what not spread in the neighborhood or from town to town. Inland travel was commonly by bus, truck, bicycle, beast-drawn cart or on foot. Long distance travel offshore was by ship or boat. The airline, I assume, was still a birdie under development for flight in the country during the time.
The midwife who delivered the baby girl earlier that day stayed and took care of the chores for my mother until all was settled for the evening. It had begun raining before she left before sunset. My mother stayed in bed with the baby by her right side. That night, she was awakened (probably for no known reason) and saw a woman with shoulder-length hair dressed in white gown standing a few feet from the right side; at about the middle of her bed (my guess is a few feet from the baby's side). She was mostly white against the darkness in the house, her shoulder-length hair was obstructing the view of her face, and only her back was mostly showing (I imagine her profile was in a slightly diagonal position). She moved slowly from the room towards the back door. At this time my mother called her by the midwife's name; no reply. She called her two more times but the woman continued moving slowly, turned around the corner towards the back door and disappeared from sight. She assumed it was the midwife who had decided to come back and wait until the rain had subsided, then left the house using the back door. So my mother did not give it much thought.
In the morning, my mother unbolted and opened the back door. The flood, may be the usual 2 feet or so under the house, surprised her (it should be noted that houses in the rural areas are commonly built so that the house stands about 5 or 6 feet above ground perhaps customarily for safety against floods, and the ground floor is usually unwalled or enclosed with fence between posts and used to raise poultry or pets or store bags of grain). It was at this time when she began thinking about the midwife. She said the midwife did not have shoulder-length hair and was not dressed in white gown. And then she realized how the midwife got out the back door and bolted it from the outside! It could only be bolted from the inside. The front door was also locked from the inside, which the midwife probably did herself before she left. If she had come back because of the rain, she would have to knock on the front door for my mother to let her in. The baby boy (oldest brother in the family), about two years old at the time, had been with my mother in the bed room all along, and couldn't even probably reach the door locks if he had tried to. Putting "this and that" together, the idea of a ghost dawned on her.
My mother must have heard about ghost stories before this occurrence but never had the slightest first-hand idea of what a ghost was. I could only imagine her aghast when she realized she had just seen one! She never mentioned how she reacted.
The next day a telegram came. Her sister (oldest sister in the family) had died in a hospital in Manila (about 700 miles northwest, by ship). My mother traveled to attend the funeral. Her sister had shoulder-length hair. The family was told by the nurse who had been caring for her that just before her last breath that night, her sister with both hands gripping tightly on the steel hospital head board, was calling the names of her relatives, crying and sobbing in agony why they did not visit her. She died the same day our oldest sister was born, possibly at about the time my mother saw the ghost. My mother was told also that her sister died in her white hospital gown. (Rudy's stories can be found on the following pages: Missouri, Philippines and Mysterious Encounters, please be sure to visit all of these pages)
HAUNTING ON BALETE DRIVE
(Rudy)
This is a story which appeared in the newspapers in Manila for quite a spell in the early 50's (around 1951 or 1953). It was a popular rumor at first among taxi and bus drivers, until it spirited up to the minds of the newspaper editors and the local radios.
There was a street named Balete Drive (the name has changed) which connected downtown Manila and the next city north from there, Quezon City. A major street (named Gilmore at the time) crossed this street at an intersection closer to downtown Quezon City. Not too far from this intersection was a well-known school and college for girls. I'm not sure now whether the school was north or south of this intersection, but anyway it was in that area. This was the place where the sightings had been reported.
A cab driver picked up a woman passenger at around 8:00 in the evening near the said school. She was young, pretty, wearing a white party dress and perfume. On closing the door, the driver of course waited for direction as he started driving. He got direction and everything would have been just like any other night, but he noticed something strange. The woman's voice he heard seem not to have come from the passenger but from inside his ears. Weird, but then he doubted himself, may be he was wrong, who else could have spoken? So he continued driving. It didn't take long and the driver glanced at his rear view mirror just as any cab driver would do especially when the passenger is pretty, beautiful, gorgeous and what not. There was no passenger within view of the mirror. He turned his head to look at the passenger. The passenger seat was empty. The common argument when this rumor appeared was the woman probably jumped out the window. You be the judge.
The school in the area I earlier mentioned was and still is to this day a private school and college for girls and young women who belonged among the wealthy, prestigious families in the country. They have come and gone into all sorts of destiny, from successful politicians and prominent professionals and business entrepreneurs down to prostitutes and the mentally ill. Some are now dead, by natural death, accidents and some by fatal crime. The last one probably brought about the haunts on taxi and bus drivers.
The preceding is a fictional, but possible idea of what happened at the Balete Drive.
Criminal activities are not frequent, but not impossible in places such as this. Formal or wild parties are one of the excitements which propel the energies of some of the young women at school - needless to say. What happens before or after the culmination of these excitements is what pushes this young women into any kind of fatal crime possible. Kidnap, rape and homicide are the typical crimes. Before or after the party at around 8:00 pm, an unfortunate young, pretty, high school or college woman in white party dress and perfume could end up dead from this type of crime, probably committed by a sex maniac driving a taxi. She would be missing and the news about her would invade the local news and even TV and radio for a while, then nothing. Isn't this very common? What would be left for this unfortunate victim who probably had young, ardent ambitions, dreams and plans for her life and her future? Something supernatural and/or paranormal would be all that is left so she can send a message about her unexpected, unfortunate death and may be even equally punish the criminal. Hence the hauntings. The hauntings ended towards the latter part of the 50's perhaps after whoever the criminal was (may be a cab driver and beyond) had met awesome punishment(s) from the reality beyond fantasy where the young, pretty woman wearing a party dress and perfume would materialize and appear at the Balete Drive under a specific occasion. (Rudy's stories can be found on the following pages: Missouri, Philippines and Mysterious Encounters, please be sure to visit all of these pages)
SCARY FOOTSTEPS
(Grace)
It should be noted that, though I am extremely (and morbidly, considering my cowardice of the paranormal, lol) fascinated with other people's true paranormal experiences, I fear seeing ghosts. If I do have a third eye, I valiantly refuse to have it opened, regardless of what paranormal activity may happen. I cannot sense a paranormal presence if it is not powerful enough to pierce through my mental barriers. I have three memorable paranormal experiences though the third I am reluctant to share because I know that most westerners will find it hard to come to terms with this (I, too, for a short time, was unsettled by this while everyone who witnessed this were either freaked out or disbelieving). These two stories are memorable because they entailed not only a different organ of sense but in one story, another shared with me the same exact paranormal experience.
In 1996, I lived with my husband in their family home in Las Pinas City, Metro Manila. We had our own bedroom that is beside a little backyard which was very cluttered and full of rubbish and broken concrete stones. There's even a burglar steel mesh on covering the whole top of the backyard to discourage robbers into entering the vicinity. In our bedroom, we have two doors, one opening to the outer hallway of the house and another opening into the backyard. We rarely go to the backyard because it's easy to fall and injure yourself there.
One night, around 9pm, my youngest sister-in-law, Kate (who was 10 at the time) came to visit me in my room while Jhun (my first husband) was away from the room. We were talking noisily and laughing when we suddenly heard the old rusty sliding gate of the backyard creak open and clear heavy footfalls were heard traveling across the backyard. We looked at each other, wondering, "Why would Jhun choose that way to return here?" Knowing my brothers-in-law (who are incorrigible practical jokers); it might be one of them playing tricks on us.
Then it dawned to me, just before it dawned to Kate. NOBODY can walk with those kinds of heavy footsteps over large slabs of concrete and rubbish and junk consistently. You're bound to hear a break in the footsteps' pattern! But, no. the footfalls were eerily constant in their walking pattern.
Then, we heard it stop loudly just outside the backyard door! Even though I was a bit scared, I still kept the rational thought that it might be Jhun all the while. I went to the door, grasping the handle, telling Kate what I'm about to do. Kate went hysterical in fear! But what if it is Jhun?
As I was about to jerk the door wide open, the door SMASHED open, BUT IT WAS THE OTHER DOOR LEADING TO THE HALLWAY! Jhun was hurrying into the room to retrieve something, almost giving us a full-blown heart attack! Saucer-eyed, Kate almost screamed in complete shock: "Why are you over there?"
Jhun laughed at us when we tried to tell him that I thought he was in the backyard and told us we were imagining things. A moment later, Jhun left and Kate was still stubbornly saying that WE weren't making it up! A few minutes later, though, we heard a timid knock. It was Gena, the girlfriend of Kate's other brother who was staying with us for a few days and shared Kate's room. I forgot that Kate's bedroom windows opened up to the backyard and Kate refuses to open the windows at night. Gena was shaking in fear. She heard the creaking of the rusty gate and footsteps passing until it ended at my backyard door. She can hear our conversation even before that happened and SHE knows that we weren't making it up at all! Since she was alone in Kate's room, she couldn't stand it and bee lined into my room, though it was her first time to enter mine. They stayed well past 11pm, until Jhun finished what he had to do and escorted both girls to Kate's home. (By the way, the next day, no matter how stubbornly I and Kate were when we investigated, no one claimed to have walked in the backyard that night. "Who in their right mind would?" they said. It's dangerous because it's pitch dark in there!)
SEASIDE SILLOUHETTES
(Grace)
In 2005, this happened in the provinces, Zamboanga City, to be exact. This time, it concerns about my second husband, Lester. Since we're based in Manila City, we went to his hometown, Zamboanga City for the explicit reason of Lester presenting me as his wife to his parents.
Zamboanga City is reputed to be one of the unofficial "mystical islands" of my country due to paranormal activity. But since I got my ignorance, inner blindness and insensitivity barriers reflexively up, I thought I could breeze through it. Little did I know.
His parents were living at the seaside (no beaches, rats, tending to a seawater-based fishery. In this neighborhood, houses are distanced far in between and there are lots of open fields, areas of densely packed trees and if you stand in the middle of the fish ponds, you can see the trail leading to the sea. Also, come past twilight, it's pitch-dark except for the lights in the house.
For one whole month, we stayed and there was little to do. So, I started a little vegetable garden. Before and after I started this, I've been seeing a tall white man at the corner of my eye and usually I ignore since I believed it was Lester (who is a tall meztiso). I got my first clue when a neighbor visited and did my nails for me. As she was doing my nails, peripherally, I saw Lester (or so I thought) pass across the open field towards the gate. Thinking that he was about to go outside to the store, I quickly swerved my head to call out to him to buy me something.... only to find that there was no one there and though Lester is a practical joker himself, there's nothing for him to hide behind at all. The neighbor noticed this and told me, "Your mother-in-law feels something strange here and is afraid of it. In my opinion, she's very lucky having such a guest" and went back to finish manicuring my nails.
Many times, while I was so absorbed in weeding my garden, I'd "feel" almost tangibly Lester approaching me directly from behind. I'd call out without raising my voice when I feel him nearly reaching me by saying "fetch me a bucket of water, will yah?" and almost simultaneously turning my head. But no one was there. Strangely, I forgot that I CANNOT feel Lester approaching me at all when we were in Manila City! Yet, here, I can feel solidly the approaching tall white man repeatedly, but only during when I wasn't attentive to my surroundings....
It all came to a head one brightly moonlit night, when a fierce storm blew, promising a storm. It was around 10pm at the time. I was also the only one awake that night. It was just past the middle of our one
I got myself a text mate by that time and was happily texting when the cell phone's signal went down in the house due to the wind. "Fine!" I told myself. "I'll look for a signal".
Because of the full moon, the spaciously cleared areas outside the house, the open fields, the fish ponds and the silhouettes of the tall swaying trees bent down by the fierce wind can be adequately seen by such a nearsighted, 4-eyed person like myself. Seeing this, I thought that there'll be no trouble to find a signal.
Only on the trail between the two big fish ponds did I find a signal for my cell phone. With the fierce wind blowing on my back, chilling me, I happily resumed texting.
After 5 minutes, all of a sudden, my third eye informed me of something. I can "see" a large dark entity float up via the trail from the house to the fish ponds. Even when I was looking at the trail itself and see no one at all, that mental vision persisted, seeing something floating towards my direction.
"So what?" I shrugged. "I DON'T HAVE a third eye!" and so, ignored and continued texting.
A few moments later, I felt the wind stop pushing on my back and the air became calm. Heaving a sigh of relief, I went on... until I noticed all the trees at my sides still bending straight ahead!
Shocked, I stood still and felt the air around me. It was unmoving and calm. I heard no whistling of the wind, since around me are open fields and fish ponds, but the distant trees do not lie. I stuck my right arm straight out to my side and stunned me hard. From my mid-upper arm down to the tips of my fingers, I felt the fierce wind whip against it. But, from that point of my upper right arm onward, it was CALM and DEAD air! Same thing with my left arm!
Keeping my cool, I finished off my text conversation with my text mate as courteously and quickly as I could, quickly walked straight through the open area, ignoring the trail homeward and snuggled right besides a slumbering Lester, unaware of everything, clinging to him until I fell asleep.
It never happened again, that kind of intuition of Lester approaching me from behind when we got back home to Manila, though I have an eerie feeling that ghost may have followed me. But how can a ghost following through 3 days of traveling via ship?
These two are the most memorable paranormal stories I have experienced, though other occult experts may say that my second story never involved a ghost, but a supernatural entity (faeries, dwarves, trolls, werewolves, etc...)
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