Ghosts Of Manila
(More specifically: Ghosts of PBSP)
Today is Manila Day!
Special non-working holiday! Wahey! But, of course, working in PBSP as I do, holidays are mythic, imaginary things we make up to keep ourselves sane. I have to go to the office later this afternoon. Have to finish preparing for the Tree Planting Activity in Mount Banahaw on Saturday. I even have to sleep in the office because we leave very, very early on Saturday.
Nyay. Sleep in the dorm. Double Nyay talaga. That building reeks of ghosts. That building will crumble to dust with those spirits still trap in it. Hay. I'm not sure it's such a great idea to talk about this so close to the witching hour. But I believe I'm pretty safe here at home.
I remember when I was younger that I have always been a candidate for schizophrenia. I grew up as an only kid until I was four years old, and by then I learned how to play by myself. I talk to curtains, walls, dolls, plants, chairs... you get the idea. I've always been described as the kid with the hyperactive imagination. I guess that was like a brand of some sort. To me, it felt negative. Since I loved telling stories then, adults assumed that I was just always making up stories when I tell them stuff. No one believed me for some time when I told them I kept seeing, feeling, hearing weird stuff. My parents said that when I was just a baby, weird stuff kept happening around the house. Like hearing a tik-tik sound outside the window for days on end. If you're Pinoy, you're probably familiar with the creature of the night they call "Tik-tik". Something like a vampire. Another thing they told people were that, for the first few days I was brought to the house, a cat will always creep up to the bedroom window and stay there until the sun is nearly up again. They decided to tie a rosary to the window (my parents believed in pseudo-stuff like that), and funny enough, the weird sounds and the cat stopped coming.
I don't know how that's connected to the things that I can still remember happening afterwards. The most disturbing thing was when I was about nine or ten, something kept waking me up at exactly 2:30 in the morning. On the dot. First, I will hear this eerie pipe/flute - like music. Then I will hear laughter and sounds of people making lots of noises as if partying. Just imagine me as a kid, waking up at 2:30 whether I liked it or not. When I hear the first few sounds of that music, I freeze, because I knw there was no escaping it. I promised myself I will never, never look out the window. Never. And eventually, it stopped. I've seen a lot of other unexplicable things. A black cloth fluttering near a neighbor's window back when I was staying at my lola's house in Libis. A woman all in black staring at me from outside the living room window (again at my lola's house). SHadows of children on the closed window panes at midnight. Stuff I don't care to remember anymore. I've seen some bad stuff. But I've seen good stuff as well. I've seen my guardian angel for one. He saved my life twice. I'm not sure if it's a he or a she. Instinct tells me it's more of a male-like aura. But I can never be sure. Everytime I tell an adult though, they'd sooner call me a wild imagineer than truthful little livvy.
Anyway, for some time, that stopped. The visions, the sounds, the feelings. I was around 15 - 17 years old and I had relative paranormal-free peace. But then the feelings returned.
It's really more of a sensing. I was in a leadership training once and I felt strange energy emanating from one place in the compund we were staying in somewhere in Tanay, Rizal. I moved closer, and even entered the hut where it felt the strongest, and that's when I knew I'll always be on the look-out for that kind of feeling from then on. You just knew it was other-wordly. Someone with stronger seeing-eyes in my org confirmed that there was a spirit of a woman there, where I just went. Nyikes. After that, when the prickly feeling comes up, I stay away or I mutter a quick "Avert!" or an invocation to Jesus.
Then when I graduated and started working for PBSP, the strength of my sensing increased, and now, I can see again. Not strongly, thank God. But it's disturbing enough. That office building is not a peaceful place. It is a churning, boiling, reeking place underneath the sleepy surface.
The first one I saw was in the third floor of the building (our floor). One time when I passed by our Executive Director's room (he was out and the lights were off), I saw a man seated at the small glass table inside. In the dark. Since it's been a while since I've "seen", I didn't think it was anything paranormal. I just wondered why that man was seated all alone in the dark in Sir Gil's office. Then when I got back to my chair, the prickly feeling came and it dawned on me what i saw. Suffice to say, I don't pass by that way anymore after 6:00 p.m.
The most disturbing one is the woman inside the big girls dorm room. For some reason or another, she doesn't like me. She keeps disturbing my sleep. At first, it was the pitter patter of feet around my bed. Then in escalated to waking up to a feeling of being pinned down and not being able to move. Then finally, the last straw which made me promise myself I will never step inside that room again, was when I woke up lying face down on the bed and feeling a weight on me. I couldn't move. But I can feel the "breathing" of the person on my forehead. It was so real that I can see my hair moving. Then I saw an arm slung over me. That was when I freaked out. It took me a while to fight it. (Best way is to calm down and pray and "throw" as strongly as you could). When it disappeared, I stood straight up and fled the dorm. I left my glasses and it was hellish having to go back for it. But that time I made sure there were people in the dorm who were awake already. Argh. It's alright when you're with people. I just can't take it when it happens to me alone.
Oh dear Lord, preserve me. I don't know what's with that place. I don't know what can be done about it. I mean, how do I get anyone to do something about it? Can I just walk up to HR and say, "uhm, Mam, I have some problems with the people at our work place. Nope, I'm okay with my unit. It's the dead ones I can't stand?"
Tsk, tsk, that's the fastest way I can get myself commited to a mental institution. I mean, who will take me seriously? Stories have been circulating in the office for years now. But nothing's changing about it. Truth of the matter, I don't think anyone can do anything about it. The place is older than we are. Intramuros is an ancient city. They were there first. What if we're the ones who're destroying their peace? Haha.
Weird world.
Today is Manila Day!
Special non-working holiday! Wahey! But, of course, working in PBSP as I do, holidays are mythic, imaginary things we make up to keep ourselves sane. I have to go to the office later this afternoon. Have to finish preparing for the Tree Planting Activity in Mount Banahaw on Saturday. I even have to sleep in the office because we leave very, very early on Saturday.
Nyay. Sleep in the dorm. Double Nyay talaga. That building reeks of ghosts. That building will crumble to dust with those spirits still trap in it. Hay. I'm not sure it's such a great idea to talk about this so close to the witching hour. But I believe I'm pretty safe here at home.
I remember when I was younger that I have always been a candidate for schizophrenia. I grew up as an only kid until I was four years old, and by then I learned how to play by myself. I talk to curtains, walls, dolls, plants, chairs... you get the idea. I've always been described as the kid with the hyperactive imagination. I guess that was like a brand of some sort. To me, it felt negative. Since I loved telling stories then, adults assumed that I was just always making up stories when I tell them stuff. No one believed me for some time when I told them I kept seeing, feeling, hearing weird stuff. My parents said that when I was just a baby, weird stuff kept happening around the house. Like hearing a tik-tik sound outside the window for days on end. If you're Pinoy, you're probably familiar with the creature of the night they call "Tik-tik". Something like a vampire. Another thing they told people were that, for the first few days I was brought to the house, a cat will always creep up to the bedroom window and stay there until the sun is nearly up again. They decided to tie a rosary to the window (my parents believed in pseudo-stuff like that), and funny enough, the weird sounds and the cat stopped coming.
I don't know how that's connected to the things that I can still remember happening afterwards. The most disturbing thing was when I was about nine or ten, something kept waking me up at exactly 2:30 in the morning. On the dot. First, I will hear this eerie pipe/flute - like music. Then I will hear laughter and sounds of people making lots of noises as if partying. Just imagine me as a kid, waking up at 2:30 whether I liked it or not. When I hear the first few sounds of that music, I freeze, because I knw there was no escaping it. I promised myself I will never, never look out the window. Never. And eventually, it stopped. I've seen a lot of other unexplicable things. A black cloth fluttering near a neighbor's window back when I was staying at my lola's house in Libis. A woman all in black staring at me from outside the living room window (again at my lola's house). SHadows of children on the closed window panes at midnight. Stuff I don't care to remember anymore. I've seen some bad stuff. But I've seen good stuff as well. I've seen my guardian angel for one. He saved my life twice. I'm not sure if it's a he or a she. Instinct tells me it's more of a male-like aura. But I can never be sure. Everytime I tell an adult though, they'd sooner call me a wild imagineer than truthful little livvy.
Anyway, for some time, that stopped. The visions, the sounds, the feelings. I was around 15 - 17 years old and I had relative paranormal-free peace. But then the feelings returned.
It's really more of a sensing. I was in a leadership training once and I felt strange energy emanating from one place in the compund we were staying in somewhere in Tanay, Rizal. I moved closer, and even entered the hut where it felt the strongest, and that's when I knew I'll always be on the look-out for that kind of feeling from then on. You just knew it was other-wordly. Someone with stronger seeing-eyes in my org confirmed that there was a spirit of a woman there, where I just went. Nyikes. After that, when the prickly feeling comes up, I stay away or I mutter a quick "Avert!" or an invocation to Jesus.
Then when I graduated and started working for PBSP, the strength of my sensing increased, and now, I can see again. Not strongly, thank God. But it's disturbing enough. That office building is not a peaceful place. It is a churning, boiling, reeking place underneath the sleepy surface.
The first one I saw was in the third floor of the building (our floor). One time when I passed by our Executive Director's room (he was out and the lights were off), I saw a man seated at the small glass table inside. In the dark. Since it's been a while since I've "seen", I didn't think it was anything paranormal. I just wondered why that man was seated all alone in the dark in Sir Gil's office. Then when I got back to my chair, the prickly feeling came and it dawned on me what i saw. Suffice to say, I don't pass by that way anymore after 6:00 p.m.
The most disturbing one is the woman inside the big girls dorm room. For some reason or another, she doesn't like me. She keeps disturbing my sleep. At first, it was the pitter patter of feet around my bed. Then in escalated to waking up to a feeling of being pinned down and not being able to move. Then finally, the last straw which made me promise myself I will never step inside that room again, was when I woke up lying face down on the bed and feeling a weight on me. I couldn't move. But I can feel the "breathing" of the person on my forehead. It was so real that I can see my hair moving. Then I saw an arm slung over me. That was when I freaked out. It took me a while to fight it. (Best way is to calm down and pray and "throw" as strongly as you could). When it disappeared, I stood straight up and fled the dorm. I left my glasses and it was hellish having to go back for it. But that time I made sure there were people in the dorm who were awake already. Argh. It's alright when you're with people. I just can't take it when it happens to me alone.
Oh dear Lord, preserve me. I don't know what's with that place. I don't know what can be done about it. I mean, how do I get anyone to do something about it? Can I just walk up to HR and say, "uhm, Mam, I have some problems with the people at our work place. Nope, I'm okay with my unit. It's the dead ones I can't stand?"
Tsk, tsk, that's the fastest way I can get myself commited to a mental institution. I mean, who will take me seriously? Stories have been circulating in the office for years now. But nothing's changing about it. Truth of the matter, I don't think anyone can do anything about it. The place is older than we are. Intramuros is an ancient city. They were there first. What if we're the ones who're destroying their peace? Haha.
Weird world.
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