Its a good five minute walk from my house to the sakayan. Last night I had to walk again as I was going to work. Chilly night it was. No surprise. Its already October now. I tread the usual path. The sound of crickets pierced by high pitched bat calls makes it just perfect for the season. I giggled a bit resisting the idea. I didn t want to scare myself because Ill be walking alone. Nobody else to run into at this time of night. I live in a small village with no more than twenty suburb households perched inside the last forest of Metro Manila. Seems like nobody else but me goes out for the night shift around here. I continued walking through the bend in the road where this notorious mango tree stands. Notorious for ghosts. I started to walk briskly. Street lights made eerie shadows off of the trees around me until there was no more under the light of the moon. It was dark. But I am quite fortunate actually that the moon shone brighter that night. Some nights were pitch black and I would trip on the gutters. I continued onto this segment along the path until there were no more trees. It was a wide space of trimmed grass about half of a football field. I looked around. Other nights I enjoyed that place as I could really feel the breeze out there but that night the sky felt a lot bigger and the open space felt a lot wider and then I felt it. That punch in the gut feeling when you feel like somethings utterly wrong and you want to run and hide but theres no where to run and theres no where to hide. I cant look around anymore. I dont want to close my eyes either. I was dying for somebody to hit the light switch but I wasnt in my room. I felt so helpless. I wanted to run but I walked normally thinking that evil spirits are just waiting to get a hint that Im scared and then come at me. I felt safe, finally, upon reaching the guard house. Pasok ka na?, the guard sheepishly asked me as always. I also ran into my sisters boyfriend at the gate. Gengat, he bid me farewell. It was a normal night after all. So I walked out the gate and into getting-to-work mode again. It was quiet at Lagro Dulo, Lagro Subdivision. Missing the buzz of jeepney engines in the morning and taho. The taho vendor, Manong Hermie, asks me to be careful when I walk this stretch when I go to work at night. His suki knows what he is talking about and he isnt asking me to watch out for ghosts nor leprechauns. I looked to see if theres anybody else around. There was none. Not good. But still I thought to myself if danger comes theres plenty of people who Ill wake up when I scream. The sound of vehicles is still too far to be heard from where I was. Out if nowhere, there was a black hooded figure in front of me. Second look, I can make out of the figure a little girl wearing a hooded dress looking away from me, facing to the right. I was walking towards it not knowing for sure what I was seeing. And then I was close enough. A thin little girl wearing a black hooded dress and no shoes facing to the right into the street. I was right. Wait whut? I keep walking. I cant stop. What if its just a kid? Im about to close in. The figure wasnt moving at all. This is impossible. The figure was just standing there motionless. I cant make sense of it. I want to stop but its too late to stop. Im walking to fast. It was facing away staring into the street not moving. I wont stop it cant hurt me I thought. Im about to walk past it and then it effin moved! Fudge! It ran into the street. I followed it with my eyes and behold it was a boy! There was another kid hiding in a car wearing no costume. Lakas ng trip. Buti na lang di ako sumigaw. Longest five minute walk in my whole life. Happy holloween! :)) [Disclaimer: I wasnt really scared walking alone last night but I almost died when that boy moved. Entirely for entertainment purposes only.]
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 02:07:28 +0000