Voice Doppelganger

Since this is the first story that I'll be submitting, I will give an account of my earliest memory of the unknown.

I was 6 years old that time and there were many kids of my age in our neighborhood. The adults used to tell us not to go out late at night, especially at midnight because ghosts are roaming around our street. Young as we were, of course, we believed them (as I grow up, I realized they were just trying to keep us from staying out late).

Then my friend, Rica (not her real name), and I decided to become adventurous and dared each other to go out the street at midnight so we made a plan. I will leave our gate open so that she can pick me up by letting herself in and calling me by our bedroom window (I was sleeping with my parents), and we will do the ghost hunt.

Guess what? I didn't bother waiting for Rica to come and I slept the night away. Not that I wanted to stand her up, it's just that I knew deep inside that it was just a bogus plan and we are just kids with false bravado.

In the middle of that night, for some reason I suddenly woke up. Convinced that Rica would not have the guts to come for me to proceed with our scheme, I sat up on the bed with the window at my back and waited for sleepiness to come instead.

After a few minutes in that position, I heard Rica's voice right behind me (where the window is). She was calling, "Anne, halika lumabas ka na... Anne halika na..." (Anne, come out now... Anne, let's go...). It was my friend's voice but I know that it could not really be her. I got very scared so I quickly laid down in bed, covered myself with blanket and tightly shut my eyes while covering my ears until I fell asleep.

The next morning when I saw Rica, I asked her right away if by any chance she did drop by our house that night. As I expected, she said that she did not.

I know I wasn't dreaming because up until now (decades after) I can still remember that incident vividly and I won't ever forget about it because that is the closest encounter I had.