“I was driving from General Santos City to Cagayan de Oro with my sister Rita and our friend Lea. It was around 3 p.m. when it started raining really hard, almost like a storm.
“We decided to stop driving and ended up checking into a pension house in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
“The water pressure in the bathroom was too weak, so we asked for another room.
“While we were having dinner, the staff moved our luggage to the new room. I was impressed—the room was bigger, with a beautiful chandelier. I had left my companions in the dining area. I had gone up ahead of them because I wanted to take a shower.
“After my shower, I noticed, strangely, that the chandelier’s light was off, even if the switch was on, so I thought it was just the light bulb that went dead.
“While Lea was taking a shower, the faucet in the sink turned on. She stepped out of the shower, turned off the tap and continued her bath. But the tap turned on again. I didn’t learn about her shower story until much later.
“That night, we turned in around midnight. There were two queen beds and I had one to myself. I was facing the door, my roommates the windows.
“I started hearing grunts. I thought Rita was having nightmares. There were also dogs that wouldn’t stop howling.
“The next day, we checked out of the hotel. I asked the girl at the front desk how old the hotel was. Just 18 years old, she said.
“In the car, I told my sister she was having nightmares. I said, ‘You were even grunting.’
“She said, ‘Ako naman may naririnig na naglalakad mula sa bintana hanggang sa pinto na may hila-hilang kadena.’
“We started screaming in the car. I still get goosebumps when I think about that pension house.” —Girlie de Leon, doctor
“One winter day last year, I arrived in New York and checked into the AKA hotel near Central Park. I was given room 46B, a family suite. After checking in, I met up with friends and we went out for drinks.
“On the way back, I walked into a Japanese store and ordered soup for takeout at one in the morning. Because of the weather, my soup had gotten cold so I reheated it in my room.
“I took a shower while waiting for my soup to heat up. Halfway through my shower, I heard a sudden scream that seemed to be coming from the other side of my bathroom door.
“It gave me chills. Everything seemed duller and colder. I walked out to check my suite. I went to my bedroom and checked the window. All I could see were the lights below.
“I was so spooked that I lost my appetite and just decided to sleep. I didn’t sleep well because of the feeling that I was being watched.
“I was woken up from my light sleep by another cold scream that seemed to be coming from inside my bedroom. I got so scared that I turned on all the lights in the room and called the front desk.
“I asked the staff if someone could come up and check on my neighbors to see if someone was screaming because I couldn’t get any sleep and it was scaring the pants off me.
“The desk asked me to wait and, after a few minutes, they told me that I was the only one on that floor. There were only four family suites on the 46th floor and the other three were empty.
“I decided to calm my nerves by having my Japanese soup but it had gotten cold again, so I went to the kitchen and reheated it. With my soup, I walked back to my room to find it totally dark, the windows open and the snow coming in.
“I quickly grabbed my clothes and bags and called my friend to pick me up so that I could stay with him.
“I checked out of the hotel. I still can’t figure out what happened to me that night.”—Avel Bacudio, fashion designer
“This happened in the early 1990s. There were only a few buses in Cavite, mostly Saulog and the baby buses, so we always rode the jeepney to go to Makati.
“I remember that I was trying to take a nap because it was around 4 a.m. We were running along Aguinaldo Highway at quite a fast speed. When we reached Imus (near the old Doyet’s bakeshop/factory), a young woman said, “Para …”
“It was a soft voice, but the weird thing was we heard it like it was whispered right into our ears. The driver stepped on the brakes and we all waited for somebody to move and get out of the jeepney. There were only a few women inside and they looked at each other and everyone denied having said it.
“We knew nobody would do that because we could have gotten into an accident and we were all in a hurry to get to Baclaran. I heard the other men say that weird things like that really happen sometimes and that a spirit may have hitched a ride with us.”—Pearl de los Santos, trainer
“I’ve had lots of shoots in the old El Hogar building in Binondo, Manila, and it always gives me the creeps.
“On an early morning, you could feel the cold, damp air well until noon when the sun begins to shine down on the courtyard. This is just the perfect place for all scary things.”—Jake Verzosa, photographer
“This is a sexy thriller.
“It was nighttime and I was in my room on a cruise ship somewhere in the South China Sea.
“I kept my balcony windows open even if the view outside was eerily pitch-black. I was about to sleep and I found that the backdrop provided me a sense of calmness.
“I’m now no longer sure how long I had been asleep. I remember waking up and realizing I couldn’t move any part of my body. At the same time, I felt a numbing-tingling sensation. Normally, we’d feel this sensation concentrated in one area after being immobile for some time; in my case, however, the sensation was all over my body.
“It was caressing and moving from my neck to my chest, my torso, my legs, and yes, even my junior. I’ll be honest, it felt good.
“In my mind, though, I knew it was weird—way too weird—and so I tried my best to resist it. Unfortunately, my body wouldn’t cooperate. I focused all my energy into lifting even just my finger, but I found it impossible. I tried to shout but my mouth wouldn’t even open; heck, I couldn’t even produce any sound with my tonsil.
“There was a part of me that just wanted to surrender to it—the tingling sensation felt that good—but the last thing I wanted was a love child with a monster. In my head, I prayed the Our Father, and before I even finished, I found myself able to move again.
“To this day, I’m not sure if it was a succubus, incubus (you can never tell in this day and age), or an elemental. I just knew that it was the second time it has happened to me; years prior, I had the same experience at Banaue Hotel.”—Jason Doplito, editor/writer
