I've just read Engkantos: The Filipino mythical spirits by francescawrites and it reminded me of jasglaybam's spooky series (part 1 and part 2). Feel free to check them out.
It also reminded me my days in school on a night like this - rainy and cool, relaxed school week. It may have even been a Tuesday night. I can't remember.
There were lots of stories that were told in school. I don't know who started it but it is said that every school used to be a cemetery or at least a portion of it used to be a cemetery. Building a structure on top of the graves is not desecration? Whatever happened to the remains?
The school where I studied also used to be a cemetery. I haven't verified this from my teachers. As a kid, I used to believe more what my classmates, schoolmates and dorm mates would say. Adults have their own world.
I stayed in the boys dorm within the school compound when I was studying. I did not live there the first year of my schooling. I stayed with relatives who happened to be teaching there. The next year and the succeeding years, I was housed in the boys dorm.
As a freshman, ghost stories is like an initiation. You have to know the stories so you will not be left out. I have heard ghost stories that happened within the school so when I was housed in the dorm, there seems to be familiarity albeit a scary one.
Imagine my first night there.
I laid in my bed waiting for a ghost or something spine-chilling event to happen. The first few months I would be wary to turn corners for I might see something unexpectedly scary. Even the bathrooms are alive with ghost stories. It's a challenge to go pee when lights are out.
One story was of a guy who went to pee one night only to be found by others passed out on the floor. When he came to, he said that while he was peeing, a closed coffin suddenly appeared in front of him suspended in the air.
My brother studied here too and during their time, there were things he experienced that can't be explained. The boys dorm then was just one huge barracks.
Unused lockers were placed at the end of the hallway just next to the bathroom. One night, the lockers started moving and shaking, doors opening and closing like an unseen entity banging on the lockers.
It started from the unused lockers at the end of the bathroom. One by one the other lockers started moving until every locker came to life. The doors of those unlocked lockers were opening and closing loudly.
These lockers are made of metal so imagine the noise!
Imagine the terror! According to my brother, most of the kids ran huddled at the exit while some stayed in their beds maybe from panic and confusion. That went on for minutes before it suddenly died down like nothing happened.
That takes us to my experience.
The dorm that I have arrived in was no longer like military barracks. There were partitions already and there were eight rooms, 4 on each side of the hallway. Each room can be occupied by eight people, four two-double deck beds and eight lockers. You have to fit in all your things in one tiny locker. There is enough room to move around though.
I remembered it was an exam week. My roommates and I were in our own beds, reviewing. It was just past 6:00 p.m. I think but everyone had already eaten and ready for bed. Lights out is 10:00 p.m.
Suddenly, we heard the lock of the locker of one of my roommates rattle. I think it wanted to get our attention and when it succeeded, there was a loud bang like someone pushed it or something heavy was pushed or thrown to it. Either something wants to go in the locker or out of it. We were startled and surprised watching what would happen next. As if that was not enough, it shook vigorously for a few seconds and then stopped. That was it.
We were more curious than scared as to what was that and what happened. We checked the locker but there's nothing about it or in it that could make it move like that. We checked for rats for that was the closest possible thing we can think of but it was empty of rats.
To this day, that is still a puzzle to me.
During my brother's time there, possession of something evil happened and they said that the locker incident that I mentioned above was done by the devil. Sometimes, lockers would just move and shake and they have been used to it.
Could it be that the same poltergeist caused my roommate's locker to move?
Since graduating, I haven't visited the dorm to inquire if there were still incidences like that. I don't know anyone or someone who knew someone who knew someone who was a dormitorian who experienced locker shaking.
Have you experienced being played by poltergeist? A poltergeist is a ghost that moves objects. Could it be that the locker shaker is a poltergeist?
I'm still not in the mood to write a travel blog so I decided to write this story instead. There were other ghost stories that were told in our dorm and school. In my years of stay, that was the only incident that I have encountered one.
What's your poltergeist story?
The lead image was from Unsplash. The rest were mine.
I'd heard a lot of ghost stories and even experienced it. Speaking of school as an old cemetery, I believe that there are dead but not really as cemetary. Also this kind of experience is unforgettable :D