SUPERNATURAL STORY: AN AUDITORY HAUNTING?

This story was told to me by one of my nieces, Lee. Her experience happened just a day ago. My niece doesn't really believe in the supernatural and such. She's more of a logical and there's always a sensible explanation on everything kind of woman, since she is about to become a doctor. She's just relating of what she herself heard and experienced. I myself don't believe in these things, but I'm always a sucker with stories like this. As I always said, at best, take this as an entertainment...nothing more.
Before her own experience, last month another niece (Meye) had told Lee that she heard what sounded like a dog outside the house. Now, that in itself is not unusual...there are just too many dogs in the compound, fighting and barking. What's unusual was, what Meye heard was it sounds like a dog shaking it's head with rattling chains round the neck (dogs in the neighborhood do not wear chain collar). She also heard footsteps. Meye must have heard these sounds more than once as she told Lee that the sounds seem to be more audible when the moon was big and bright. Lee doesn't know what to make of Meye's story.


Outside wall of the guest room...

Anyway, here's the story that Lee told me of her experience:
My niece was getting ready for bed after chatting with her fiancee at 3:00 in the morning. She has the habit lately of sleeping on the ground floor's guest room instead of in her bedroom upstairs (two storey house) so that if ever a burglar gets in, someone could easily alert the whole house.
So, there she was, lying on the bed with the radio on. At first, she heard an itty bitty rattling sound. She had to strain at first, wondering what the sound was and where it came from. Then she heard it again, louder this time, just a few feet from the room where she was. She was thinking, it sounds like a dog with a lot of chains around the collar shaking its head. She's not the kind that gets scared easily so she didn't mind it at first...she turned on the lamp, made some noises, coughing etc. She continued the noise she was making for a few more minutes hoping that the sound would disappear, but whenever the radio stops playing, the rattling sound seems to get louder mixed in now with human footsteps. Eventually, the experience was too much for her and with all the hair on her body stood on end she hightailed it upstairs :). She was able to have her nephew's nanny accompany her back downstairs for the rest of the morning without hearing those sounds again. The funny thing was, with all the commotions she heard, she didn't hear even one bark from the neighborhood dogs.

SUPERNATURAL STORY: LITTLE DARK BOY

My father was a tailor, a very good one and a hard worker. He and a male cousin owned a succesful tailoring shop at one time. Aside from them, they also employed a "tig sursi" (stitch woman). Between (tailors) them, one would sometimes stay very late to finish some outfit especially if the deadline is the next day. This story is one such night/dawn.

The tailoring shop was about 15-20 minutes walk from our house. It was located in the main thoroughfare to the City, we call "karsada" (road). To get there, we have to use a dirt feeder road. Sometimes a tricyle (mode of transportation, motorcycle with sidecar) could use it, but the dirt road is mostly for foot use. As it is just a dirt road, the place would become so muddy and small pools of water would collect in the small potholes on the grassy side of the road when it rains. Growing up, I found this stretch of dirt road a little scary, especially at night. It is in the middle between the fence of the Base (MAB) and big tress, weeds, bushes and a smattering of only a couple of nipa (thatch) huts on the other side. No lamp post, so at night this road is dark and quiet. Not much "civilization" for a scaredy cat like me :).
A typical Philippine dirt road.



So, there was Papa in one of his overtimes going home at two in the morning. The road was still a little muddy as it rained hard a couple of days before, some small pools of water were still on the grassy part of the road. The night wasn't that dark, quiet but for the croaking of frogs. He was walking and halfway thru the road, Papa heard splashing. At first, he didn't pay much attention thinking that it was just the frogs, having fun in their pool :). He continued to walk, then he heard the splashing again. The sound seems to came behind him, he turned around and looked on the grassy side of the road where one of the small pools of water was. He saw a small boy, two or three years old, happily splashing himself in the water. The boy didn't have any clothes, robust looking and had dark complexion. The distance between them was between nine or ten feet. Papa was thinking "kabugoy bata-a" (what a rambunctious kid) and continued walking. As he continued to walk he realized that it's two in the morning! Kids aren't supposed to be out by themselves at that age at that time of the day! With a raised hair on the back of his neck and goosebumps, he pretended that nothing was out of the ordinary until he arrived home.
When he told us this story, we tried to tell him that maybe the kid was the son of one of the families that live not far away from where he saw the boy. He told us, he already asked the mother of that family and was being told that none of their children has the habit of going out without telling any of the members of the family, and at that time of day? Besides, she told my father that their youngest is seven years old.

SUPERNATURAL STORY: HAMOK

I'm a sucker for supernatural stories...ungo-ungo (witch), abat (specter), white ladies and what not. What I'll try to write are stories that I often heard from my father...most were his own first hand experiences. I considered him a very level headed man, articulate, and not prone to hysteria, so I assumed that his stories were real. No matter...real or not, when I heard him tell stories like this growing up, my hankering for scary stories are always fixed and more . At best take this story as entertainment...nothing more.

As it is, my father was what I called “abtanon” (prone to experienced/see supernatural things/beings). Maybe his third eye was opened or what. I often wish that “naliwat ko niya” (I'm like him) in having to experienced things that are out of this world…but maybe not, as I’m a nervous nelly myself . Oh, I have some experiences, but more of an auditory kind and dreams...haven't seen/experienced anything that would make me passed out (yet) hehe.

Well (rubbing hands ), this story was experienced by my father and my older brother who was five or six years old at that time. I must be two then and I didn’t remember when this happened, I only heard the story being repeated:

Our place in Lapu-Lapu is very close to Mactan Air Base (some of the land that the base is on was owned by my grandparents). When this story happened, the Base didn’t have the fence/gate put up yet and was mostly “kalibunan” (overgrowth), neigbors were not that close (distance) and like most of the places at that time, our place has no electricity.

One evening, my brother wanted to go to the toilet, so Papa went with him. Instead of going to the outhouse, they decided to find a clearing by the “kalibunan” which was not far from our house as it was a nice, bright night…”pa presko kuno ” (to have some fresh air, literally ;)).

An old photo of MAB...our house is under those coconut trees.



So there they were, my brother doing his business, Papa whistling. At first, they heard galloping hoves in the distance and didn’t think much about it, then realized that the sound was coming towards them. They were confused as they haven’t seen a thing, only sounds. My brother run to my father and hugging each other, they waited of what would happen next. What they heard was what sounded like a herd of carabaos…snorting, fighting and galloping around them, they can also feel the breeze created by the "herd". My brother was yelling to Papa asking what's going on while my father was shushing him. Then, silence…the whole thing lasted just a few seconds.

Carabao/water buffalo.



When my brother came to the house (ahead of my father), my mother asked him “naunsa ka Dong, mora man ka ug gigukod ug abat ” (What happened, you looked like you've been chased by a specter). It seems that the only ones who heard the "commotion" was my father and brother, (we) didn’t even hear my brother’s yell. Later, our relatives said that what they experienced was a “hamok” (haunting).