I See Dead People

Who here has attended class nights or sleep overs in campus? If you are from the Ateneo, it is impossible to have not experienced this. People bringing sleeping bags, Magic/Pokemon/playing cards, basketball attires, a Play Station and a small television set, and lots and lots of healthy foods… NOT! What I meant to say was lots and lots of JUNK FOOD!! Add this to having numerous activities that promote class unity and this certainly makes this an event to remember for all Ateneans. However, aside from playing basketball until the break of dawn, one activity that rules this sleep over is ghost hunting. Just the name of it intrigues us to join in this hunt. However, after searching high and low for hours for ghosts only to find nothing, one by one our classmates start heading back to the room disappointed. I am usually the first one to head back not because of disappointment, but rather because of fright. Just as that little boy told Bruce Willis in the movie Sixth Sense, “I see dead people.”
I believe I have this gift because of three past experiences I had. These are the following:

• Our family is based from Kawit, Cavite. Every Sunday, we would visit our grandmother’s house which is still the same house where my mother grew up in. Sometimes, when our schedules would permit, we would sleep over there to keep our grandmother company. And every time we would, my siblings and I would always do anything to not sleep in the room at the end of the hallway. That room used to belong to our uncle and ever since his time, there have been stories about it. The scariest one being that someone keeps knocking at the door during the wee hours of the morning. During one of our sleep overs, I was the unlucky one and ended up having to sleep in that room. I was scared out of my pants that I tried sleeping early to avoid hearing the knock at the door. However, as fate would put it, I could not sleep. The grandfather clock would sound as hour after hour passed by until the clock struck 3 a.m. I started hearing that knocking sound and did my best to not pay attention to it. But after all the years of someone knocking on that door… that was the night it decided to enter. I saw was a dark figure entering the room and I could not move any muscle in my body and could not scream because of fright. As soon as I could, I got up out of the bed and ran as fast as I can out of there. To this date, I have yet to return to that room and have no intentions of ever doing so.
• I attended a silent retreat during my third year in High School. We held the retreat in this old compound where our teachers said that this was the place where all the Jesuits go to hold their own silent retreats. During one of the prayer sessions, my stomach did not feel well so I asked permission to go back in my room. Walking back, nature called so I headed towards the bathroom only to find it already used and dirty. It was too disgusting to use so I went up the stairs and used the bathroom in the third floor. After using it, one of the Jesuits there startled me as he greeted me outside the restroom. He apologized for surprising me and asked how my stomach was feeling. I told him that there was no need for apologies and said that my stomach was feeling better already. I headed back down to the second floor and was greeted by another Jesuit, this one asking where I came from. I told him I had used the restroom upstairs only to have been shocked by his response. He told me, “Iho… walang third floor dito.”
• As a child, I used to sleep with a glass of milk next to me. One night however, changed all that. I was already sleeping when I heard someone enter my room. I was facing the other side of the room so I did not bother shifting sides to check who it was. The person that entered walked slowly next to my bed, then I heard him drink the glass of milk. That got me to turn to see who it was but to my dismay, it was a bugler and he had a knife in hand! He was about to stab me so I jumped out of my bed to avoid him. As I did, I suddenly woke up with all my pillows and blanket on the floor. I thought to myself that good thing it was just a dream. However, I felt tingles down my spine as I looked at my side and saw that my glass of milk was already empty.

People sometimes just laugh when I say I have a third eye. They claim that it is only one of my jokes and that they do not believe me anymore. However, with these experiences I hope you understand that I am not kidding. In fact, I am dead serious. Every time you think that you are alone in the house and then all of a sudden here footsteps coming from the other room, or you think that you saw something but just say that it was just nothing… think again. Think again because we are not alone. We are never alone.