The Boarding House

It has been 2 years since I last shared my stories here. I wanted to share something else that also happened in the boarding house where I used to live when I was young. As a background, the boarding house is semi-concrete, the first floor is made of concrete while the 2nd floor is made of wood. Anyway here is my story.

I was such a bookworm when I was still in high school. I spent my days during summer break reading in the downstairs living room of the boarding house. I was usually alone during daytime because the adults (my mom and our housemates) were at work.

Most of the time when I was alone, I would hear footsteps upstairs. The footsteps were sometimes light, like someone was very careful not to make noise, but other times the footsteps were heavy like someone was angry stomping on the wooden floors. Most of the time though, they sounded like someone was dragging their feet across the wooden floor. I just disregarded it actually, I was so engrossed with my reading that I thought of it as the old house settling or some huge rats (which that house had a few) scurrying upstairs. So I just did not think of it too much and went on with my life.

My bed was right under the window. The window has wooden slats which I push to close. The window that was directly near my head was broken so I needed to prop an empty Efficascent bottle at the bottom to keep it closed. I was a bit lazy so some nights I would forget to close the window. And those nights when the window was open, I always had nightmares of a very tall shadowy man who would lean from outside and into my window and beckon me. He had long arms and long legs and faceless. Now you might say that this description sounds exactly like the slender man but to be honest, I have not heard of slender man since a year or 2 ago. The slender man actually reminded me of my nightmares.

Again I just went on with my life. I studied hard late into the nights and ignored the noises and bumps when I was the only one awake. I tried my best ignoring the nightmares, prayed hard when the tall man visited my sleep and by morning just moved on. I did not dwell on those things, thinking that they are just products of my active imagination.

Now, 20 years later, my memories of that house are mostly bittersweet because I spent my teenage years there when we were struggling financially. I did not associate that house to the supernatural nor did I remember it with fear. However, a few weeks ago, one of our former housemates found me on Facebook and connected with me. We chatted for a while, the usual "kumustahan" (catching up) and reminiscing the old house. Out of the blue, she said "I hate that house. I always hear footsteps when I'm alone, even during the day! I could not sleep properly too. I always had nightmares of a tall "anino" peeking through my window." Anino is Filipino for shadow.

Oh ok. I honesty did not know what to think when she said that. I quickly shared to her my experience and she was shocked. Only my mom knew of the nightmares I had. I asked her if she ever mentioned it to anyone and she said no. I believed her because my mom is not the type to share these kinds of things to others.

Was the tall shadowy man real and not just a figment of my active imagination? Were the footsteps paranormal? I'm actually amazed at how I behaved when I experienced those things! I mean, I basically ignored them!

Sorry this was very long. Thanks for reading up to here!