Careless Whisper

Here is another weird story that happened to me when I was young, this time I am on my early teens.

Me and my stepbrother always went on summer vacation to our aunt's house in Pasig City. We love it there as she lives in a subdivision wherein lots of the residents have children our age and the subdivision has a huge playground smack in the middle of the place. We would usually stay for the whole 2 months and then return home before school starts.

My aunt lives with her only daughter. My uncle works for the Bureau of Customs so he's mostly out at nights. We sleep in her daughter's room as our cousin stays with her mom in the master bedroom.

For the last few years, nothing eventful has ever happened to me in that home. In fact, we always love it when summer vacations came in because we are excited to meet again the kids in the subdivision who of course became our regular "summer" crew.

However, one night, after a very busy day of playing and riding our bicycle around the subdivision (which during that time was not yet full of houses, meaning there were still some lots that are vacant), me and my stepbrother ate a hearty dinner and went upstairs to play Nintendo Family Computer, which was the fad then. Afterwards, of course, lights out for us.

I usually slept in a "sporty position" as we call it. It's sideways with one leg stretched straight and the other bent as if on a sprint. Anyway, just as I was about to doze off, I was jolted to full wakefulness by some unrecognizable sounds. They sounded like buzzing of sorts. At first I thought it was coming from the wall where I am facing (which is the wall dividing my aunt's room from our room). I sat on my bed, put my ear on the wall, trying to hear if my cousin or aunt was still awake, but I heard nothing.

After a few minutes of waiting and listening, I got tired and sleepy, so I lay back down and tried to sleep. And again, when I was about to be taken in the land of dreams, there it was again. A distinct sound. This time I did not sit down as the sounds appeared not to be coming out of the wall, but from my pillow.

I tried to listen harder. Now the sounds were more recognizable. It was not a buzzing sound but a whispering sound. A whispering sound of different voices, genders, and ages. I was not able to make any of the words they we re saying. But the whispers do not stop except if I sat down on bed. As soon as my ear touched the pillow, the whispering would start.

At first it was okay. I mean its crazy, thinking how can you sleep with "something" whispering in your ear. I was able to ignore it at first, by lying down on my back instead of my normal sleeping position. But after a while, I got tired. I get so restless at nights. You see, the whispers get louder and louder each night, still unable to make out any words, but definitely the sort of buzzing sound are louder and they get in my head too much that even during the day, it seems I hear "them" whispering.

I had asked my stepbrother to swap beds with me. I actually forced him to swap beds with me (hehehe -- advantage of being older). And for quite a few nights, I had good sleep.

But again, after a few nights, the whispering started again. This time not from my pillow, but the sound would come from the antique chest at the foot of the bed that belonged to our very young grandmother (who lives in Alabang that time). And not only that, the whispers are now accompanied by a couple of other sounds like knocking and grumbling. It's as if they are trying to get out of the chest but unable to.

I was not able to tell my aunt about it, as my aunt is a much known skeptic, and if I had told her she would definitely bring me to a psychiatrist. So I just endured the whole 2-month period, trying to sleep on my aunt's room's floor, giving her an alibi that I liked to sleep in an air conditioned room (hers was the only air conditioned room).

The next summer, I never went on vacation there again. Apparently, my grandma told me (the one who owns the antique chest), that the house was haunted by not 1, but 3 ghosts: a black lady, a burning lady, and a faceless man. And that's the reason why she lives in Alabang with our other aunt.