Confession by Kim I am born and raised a Catholic and this religion ran deep in the family, even my ancestors all the way from China! After few decades, majority of our family members are still Catholic and one of my uncle even end up serving the church as a priest. Point of saying this is, the teaching and beliefs of this particular religion is fairly strong in the family. So this a story, about what happen, 18 years ago, a night before my grandma passed away. She had suffered diabetes more than 10 years before her passing, on top of the diabetes, she also suffered from terrible leg ulceration, to be honest, I do not know whether that is even the exact term for it, but her legs are pretty much, swelling, with wounds here and there and blackish in color for as long as I could remember. Due to diabetes, all these wounds would not heal and doctor said no choice but to amputate. The night before the surgery, my uncle and my cousin were keeping her company in the hospital. It has passed visiting hours, so hospital is fairly quiet except for the noise of cars passing by on the street outside. My cousin and uncle were having conversation but through whispers since both of them are not sleepy and they have to be awake anyway, in case of anything. I could not remember the exact time, when I think according to my uncle, it was rather late, or nearly midnight, when the both of them, saw and heard, the ward door swayed and remained open, as if there were someone that came through the door and stood there. But…there was no one there. What’s weirder is, the ward door, is an automated door. Both of them stopped talking and just stare at the door, they were thinking, could be doctors or nurses that is coming through and they open the door somehow. But the door remained open, with no one passing through, for 5 minutes or so, and it closed back by itself, like how it used to be. Right at the moment when the door was closed, my grandma opened her eyes, with the widest smile, she called my uncle and said, “you know who came to visit me just now?” Right at the moment when the door was closed, my grandma opened her eyes, with the widest smile, she called my uncle and said, “you know who came to visit me just now?” My uncle then asked who. “It’s Jesus and Mother Mary…” said my grandmother. Obviously, my uncle and cousin looked at each other puzzled and thought, she’s just dreaming. Grandma then continued saying, “They said, my legs are healed and I may come home” and obviously she’s very happy to hear that. No one in the world, no matter how bad is your condition, wanted any parts of your body gone. Uncle then told her, “good lah like that, then tomorrow we can check out and go home! But now, you have to sleep, cause now is still nighttime.” She went back to sleep.
The next morning, she woke up around 5 in the morning, feeling all happy after what she experiences the night before and told the story all over again to my uncle and cousin that is still there. She drank some water and then went to back to sleep, feeling all joyous. She never woke up. She passed away that morning, just a few hours before doctors could cut off both of her legs. It’s a sad news for our big family, her 13 children and over 30 grandchildren were all notified and asked to return home immediately. Dad, uncles and aunts went to the hospital to bring her body back for funeral. And this is the last part of the thing that we could not explain, when she is home, her children put on her favorite cheongsam as her last attire before she was placed in the casket. As they were dressing her, they found… no more swells, no more wounds on her legs and the color? It looks as white and as soft as a baby’s skin. This is when my uncle told the story of the night before. Maybe the higher power did visit her. Maybe her leg was really healed. Maybe she is really coming home. Just that, it was not our home, it was her forever home. Confessions by Daniel B. Edited by Eugene Tay I work as a night shift security officer in a building that's situated in the commercial district. I am one of the only two personnel working the graveyard shift. Work starts at 8.00pm and one of us have to be stationed at the security counter while the other makes his rounds to patrol the building. One Friday night while I was on duty and taking my turn to patrol while my colleague took his break, I experienced my very first haunting. It was 11.00pm; I started my patrol from the 39th floor and made my way down. Each floor had two staircases so I will walk down from one stairwell, cut cross the entire stretch of floor to the other stairwell, and continue making my way down in this zig-zag pattern. On the 16th floor, when I was passing by the middle lift lobby, I saw an open pink umbrella with a kids ball outside an empty unit. In fact, the entire floor is vacant, it's quite strange to find these items here; and besides my partner would have mentioned seeing them when he went on his patrol. I was honestly freaked out at this time. The hair at the back of my neck stood up. Convincing myself that my colleague probably was lazy and skipped some levels, I tried to calm my nerves and completed my round. When I reached the ground floor, I still couldn't shake off the weird sensation I felt on level 16. Something about it just did not feel right. I decided that since my colleague did not mention anything before, perhaps this was a small matter and not worth talking about. There's still the entire night to work and we had to do some more patrols before knocking off, let's not scare either of us unnecessarily. I sat at the security counter playing games on my mobile phone. My colleague was inside the mail room taking a nap. Nothing happened until about 1.00 am, then I heard a lady's laughter going, "heheheh". Nothing happened until about 1.00 am, then I heard a lady's laughter going, "heheheh". It was loud enough to echo through the empty foyer. I paused my game and looked around. I was sure I heard a laughter. The sound of laughter is very distinct. It's not a bird or a sound that came from outside. This laughter came from inside the building.
I waited for a while expecting to hear any follow up sounds but there were none. I shrugged off that experience and went back to my game, and that's when I heard the laughter again. This time I chose to ignore it and continued to play my game, but I must tell you, inside I was freaking out. About 5 mins later, the laughter echoed again. This time I got pissed. You can say that way I handle fear is to replace it with temper. I jumped over the counter, not even bothering to walk around it, and ran towards the direction of the sound. I stood there in the dim light and shouted into the dark corridor all the vulgarities that came to mind. After that I did not go back to the counter. I went out of the building to smoke the adrenaline away. For the rest of the night, I stayed at the counter. Later on I found out that the building had a lot of weird incidents and according to the guards who had been there longer than me, the experience I encountered was not uncommon. There was another incident where a sleeping security guard woke up to find three ghostly apparitions in soldier's uniform scolding him in Japanese. So far the hauntings had not been malicious. With regards to my experience, I felt that the ghosts were more playful and just trying to get my attention. For most of us who had an experience in that building, it's usually just through sounds and feelings only. There were rumours that this building was built on old cemetery grounds and that the spirits are anchored to this place. Most places in Singapore, to be honest, have their own stories and hauntings lah so it's no point shifting job to another place either. Who knows what I will experience there. Maybe I may not be so lucky. Like they say, better a hantu you know than a hantu you don't. Confession by Cara Wong Cover Photo Credit: Nikko Pascua "If I had to describe Tanglin Halt or "chup lao" as it was more commonly known, I would say it was basically the cusp of all the paranormal shit that happened to me and I wouldn't move there even if someone paid me a million dollars. Will probably split this story into 2 or 3 parts cause the number of encounters there were ridiculous." - Cara Wong So as a bit of a backstory, my dad was a regular in the "house flipping" scene. It basically meant buying properties at good prices, getting it done up and then reselling it at good profits. It also meant we never stayed in one place for very long. If memory serves, Tanglin Halt was either our 3rd or 4th home.
I will refrain from revealing the block number but it was close to the church and the old railway track. We first moved into a higher floor of that block and lived there for a couple of months before the real estate agent told us that a floor below us in the same block was selling for cheap - plus it was a corner unit. Naturally my dad's interest was piqued and within months we had yet moved to another home. On hindsight, no free meal in the world and cheap houses usually come at a nasty cost. In the beginning, everything started off small. Incidents that weren't so big that you could brush it off as your imagination or a coincidence.
Confession by Cara Wong Cover Photo Credit: Nikko Pascua This was shared with me by a friend who lived in Tanglin Halt, Blk 31. (Very bold to tell you guys the block this time because the incident didn't happen in his house). My friend worked in the same fast food joint as me but typically preferred to work the closing shift, which meant he would get home sometime around 2 or 3am. He recalled on that fateful night, there was no change in his routine as he got off the cab. He remembered it being a super hot night and that he couldn't wait to get home to shower. So in order for him to get to his block, he had to walk this long winding pavement that basically connected all the blocks and ended at the then-existing, Tanglin Primary Sch. (I drew a yellow crisscross line on the map so you can visualize the path he had to take to get home). He recalled brisk walking to his flat but just furtherup the path he could see what looked like 2 people and they were heading his way fast. At first he brushed it off as 2 other late commuters like himself but quickly got alarmed when they were half a block away and in the dim streetlights, he could make out that not only was one of them inhumanely tall, 1 was completely decked out in a black outfit and the other next to him was quite the opposite - wearing a total white outfit. He recalled the one in white also had a very tall stiff looking white hat which made him look even taller than he already was, and that the hat had some red characters on it. He also held something upright in his hand. What truly shocked him though, was when he realized the one in white also had its tongue lolling out of the mouth and was so long that it was halfway down its body. The one in white also had its tongue lolling out of the mouth and was so long that it was halfway down its body. Needless to say, my friend freaked out and realizing that there was no way he could get to his block without passing the 2 of them, he quickly headed to his left and ran to the void deck of Blk 29 - barely seconds as the 2 of them passed him by, He said they looked like they were in a hurry and didn't even stop to look at him and when he turned around to look at them, they had disappeared. The next morning, he described his experience to his mother and the 2 spirits he had bumped into. His mother suggested they quickly visit a temple and speak to a priest just in case he had offended the spirits by crossing their paths and staring at them. At the temple, the priest mentioned that what my friend came across weren't spirits but hell deities, also known as Hei Bai Wu Chang (黑白无常) and they were probably on their way to escort a dying person to the Underworld. He also mentioned that the white one was extremely temperamental, and if you caught him on a good day, you would be blessed with fortune and good luck but if it was a bad day, he was just as likely to curse you with misfortune. On an ending note, my friend has since converted to Taoism and interestingly enough has the 2 deities tattooed on his back because the priest told him it is not often that Hei Bai Wu Chang (黑白无常) appears to the human eye, so they must have revealed themselves to him for some reason. "In Tanglin Halt you can find home temples dedicated to varies deities both in heaven and in hell, their imposing effigies line red alters blacked with soot. This harks back from the kampong days where residents ran places of worship within their residence. This practice was carried over to housing flats when the villagers came over. Home temples are meant to be temporary and is not meant for public worship, however that last bit is a grey area and hard to enforce. The sight of the ominous red glow and scent of incense creeping out of someone’s home is a declining trend." - Eugene Tay
Confession by V.O. This incident happened not too long ago in April 2019, when my hubby and I booked a hotel staycation around Orchard area. Since it was an award winning hotel, we paid a bit of a premium as we wanted to give ourselves a treat from a tiring week of endless work. I remembered when we first drove into the hotel basement carpark, it was dimly lit and a little rundown. The paint on the walls were peeling and there were some boxes of junk in the surrounding area. “Is this the correct hotel?” I asked my hubby as I turned the car into a parking lot next to the lift lobby. We paid a bit of a premium for the room and we were having an expectation vs reality moment. The hotel building exterior looks modern but perhaps, they did not refurbish the basement carpark I guess? I thought to myself. After I alighted from the car, something in me didn’t feel quite right but I brushed it off quickly as I thought it could be just my imagination. We entered the hotel lobby and were greeted by the hotel staff who handed us some welcome juice and biscuits. The hospitality of the hotel staff made me feel so much at ease that I quickly forgot about the gut feeling I had at the basement carpark. Minutes later, our room keys were handed to us and we took the elevator up to our room. We did what every Asian parent teach their kids to do, which was to knock on the door before entering the hotel room. Upon entering, my hubby slotted in the room card and I excitedly went in to take a photo of the bedroom (refer to photo below) before checking out the rest of the room. The room looks relatively new and clean with a day bed bedside the large glass window. We hung around in the room for a bit and left shortly after to explore the rest of the hotel surroundings. We didn’t return to the room until much later, after dinner at around 10pm. As usual, my hubby slotted in the room card to activate the room lights but it didn’t work. We tried a few times and even tried another card, but it just didn’t work. A few moments later, the lights finally came on. We left the card in the slot and shrug it off thinking it could be an electrical fault without giving much thoughts about it. Funnily, this didn’t trigger any form of uneasiness like what I experienced in the carpark earlier in the day. I guess I was too absorbed by other matters occupying my mind. Hence, I didn’t think much about it. It was just a normal night, I wasn’t on medication or had any alcohol. Hubby and I were spending some quality time chatting about random things till quite late and we went to bed at around 3am. As my hubby can be quite a heavy sleeper, he was already fast asleep within a couple of minutes. I too, can be a heavy sleeper but for some reason, I felt really drowsy but couldn’t fall sleep that night. I kept having constant chills running down the back of my spine. At that point in time, the thoughts of encountering something supernatural didn’t hit me yet as I tend to rationalise my thoughts a lot before passing it off as anything supernatural. The hotel bed must be really good at absorbing body heat, I thought to myself and I turned to sleep on my side as I snuggled a little further under the sheets to keep myself warm. Now, the chills were getting more and more intense as I tossed around to lie back flat onto the bed. Suddenly, my body froze and I couldn’t move! Not only I couldn’t move, I started feeling a grip tightening around my neck and then, I couldn’t breathe! Everything happened so quickly that this time round, I was fully aware and convinced that other than my hubby and I, there is/ are something supernatural in this room. I started feeling a grip tightening around my neck and then, I couldn’t breathe! My first survivor instinct was to struggle and tried moving my body but it was as if a strong force was pressing me down really hard on the bed. The grip around my neck was getting tighter and tighter that I thought I was going to die.
I called out to God in my head and the grip loosened a little. I was able to open my eyes even though I couldn’t move. I tried locating my snoring hubby beside me but instead, I saw a “green thing” in the room. It was a pale green silhouette but I couldn’t make out what it was. Struggling to gasp for air, praying and trying my best to move to wake my snoring hubby, I then heard a voice speaking in my head. The voice was a little muffled and sort of unclear, but I could make out the language it was speaking. That “thing” was speaking in Malay. Then, the green silhouette shifted and now I saw a Malay family, one woman and three children who were all girls, standing at the corner of the room near the day bed at the glass window. That few minutes felt like the longest time ever! I felt that my energy and life was sapping away. When will my hubby wake up? Dude was still snoring away! I struggled to give him a kick but I was still very much paralysed on the bed. Prayers after prayers in my head while watching that “family” standing at the corner seems like forever. Then, I felt something move on the bed beside me. My snoring hubby finally woke up and gave my shoulder a few shakes! I got out of that trance and immediately cough, gasping for air while trying to regain my composure. As I didn’t want to affect my hubby, I briefly told him about my sleep paralysis but didn’t exactly recounted to him what I saw earlier. We did a short prayer and went back to bed. By the way, it was already 4am at this point of time and I was feeling really exhausted. Hubby went back to snoring while I was trying to get to sleep. What happened next just annoyed the hell out of me. “Knock knock knock”. I heard “someone/ something” knocking on our main door. “Can’t you just press the freaking doorbell why must you knock?” I thought to myself feeling extremely annoyed. I don’t know what gave me all the patience from the earlier episode but I guess, I’m just a really patient person in nature, hahahaha. The knocking continued. How can my hubby continue sleeping without feeling unaffected? Then, I heard footsteps outside my room. The footsteps sounded like heavy boots. Firstly, who would be walking back and forth so slowly and secondly, who walks around the corridor at 4am in the morning? I hope it was just my imagination or someone coming back from a party but couldn’t locate his/her room at that hour. Then, my bed started shaking, I sat up and witnessed the sight of the bed moving. I looked over at my hubby and was feeling amused that he could still sleep so soundly. I lie back down onto the bed, closed my eyes and prayed for daybreak. Just another hour and it is going to be morning soon! I consoled myself. This wasn’t my first time experiencing such things but it was really one of the most intense night I ever had. Finally, I managed to catch 3 hours of sleep before going down for breakfast at around 9am. Yup, I had really bad dark circles that day and no amount of concealer can conceal my panda eyes. With 2 hours left before our checkout time, hubby and I went back up to the room. I got my hubby to keep watch of me while I took a power nap. The TV was on with soft volume and I thought perhaps now I’m safe to fall asleep. I have my hubby to keep watch of me too. As I was about to doze off to sleep, I couldn’t move again. Another sleep paralysis, ahh this was getting so annoying!! Though I couldn’t move, I could see my hubby just right beside me on the bed using his phone. This time round, I heard a snarl in my right ear. I thought it was the TV, but I could still see what’s on the screen in front of me. Nope, it was Channel News Asia. Why would CNA have snarling noises? Lol! Body couldn’t move but eyes still can move, so I looked over at my hubby and tried giving him a telepathy moment. Hello dude can you just stop looking at your phone?? Your wife is again getting spiritual attacks! For some reason, he seemed to be able to tell that something was not right with me again and he shook me out of my state. Thank God! I couldn’t take this torment any longer and we both packed our bags hurriedly, eager to leave this room. Don’t ask me why I didn’t thought of changing rooms from the very beginning when I started encountering all these things. It just didn’t cross my mind with so many things going on at that time . Who would want to leave the room with that intense knocking on our front door and heavy sounding boots prancing outside our door? As we were doing our final round of checks before leaving the room, I saw it. The scratches on the room wallpaper. My hubby and I couldn’t believe what we saw, we swear we didn’t see this when we first checked into the room! Plus if the scratches were already there in the first place, we couldn’t have missed out seeing this as it was near the glass window beside the TV! I snapped a photo of it and we immediately check out of the room without bothering to shut the room door. The scratches on the wallpaper resembled sharp nails/ claws. What do you guys think? These were the actual photos taken and I have not done any alteration/ edits of any sort to the photos. The first photo was taken when hubby and I first checked in the room and the 2nd photo with scratches on the wallpaper was taken when I was about to check out of the hotel room.it. Confession by I.A. This confession took place in 2014 at Sentosa's halloween horror event titled Spooktacular. It was also the last time that they organised this event. Many people are not aware that there are prayers and blessing rituals conducted prior to running such an event, however there are no guarantees that the haunting won't take place. I was assigned as a scare actor in one of the haunted trails that was situated up a hill. People had to climb up a steep incline to enter the main trail. There were some actors stationed along the way but they weren't as intense as the ones on the main trail. I was in an area that wasn't that dark but it was still really spooky in the dim light. There was a door for us to exit to the back if we needed to leave the trail. This is the kind of door that can only be opened from the inside. From where I was standing, waiting for the guests to come, I saw the door opening and closing by itself. I thought to myself: Our area is enclosed and there was only a ventilation fan which is far from the door. It won't be possible that a draft of air caused the heavy door to open and shut by itself. This definitely looks like someone is actually pushing against it. In my heart, I knew this must be something supernatural at work. I said out loud, "I'm here to work, please don't disturb me, can?" The door closed and did not open again. In another incident, I overheard a guest talking about how the three scare actors really spooked her out but the thing was that in my station, there were only two scare actors. Where did the third one come from?! I decided to keep this from my partner as I'm not sure she would be strong enough to handle this news. I decided to keep this from my partner as I'm not sure she would be strong enough to handle this news. If you had attended Spooktacular, you might recall that for one of the horror trail attraction, there's a lift at the main entrance where its filled with fake cockroaches and a scare actor, but instead of a lift door they used a curtain to cover the entrance. If you had wondered why they did that, here's the story: The door would keep breaking down only at night for no reason. The maintenance crew would come in to check but cannot find anything wrong. In the day, the door would be working fine. In the end, they just decided to go with curtains instead. There's also another incident where I saw an "actor" walked past me and heading in the wrong direction. So I called out to her and asked if she was going to the rest area for a break but the person just kept knocking her head and walking. I turned to my partner to check with her but she said she didn't see anyone. When I turned back, the "actor" was gone. What was weird was that we were not supposed to go by main entrance as the break room is actually at the back. So who was that person I saw? Then one night the whole area blacked out and we were told to use torches to continue the scare while they fixed the circuits. When I did a headcount for our station, I counted four people when it was supposed to be only three - two actors and one guide crew. When I did a headcount for our station, I counted four people when it was supposed to be only three. I counted a few times but still got four. I decided to ignore it and continue with the show. After the lights came on, I did a headcount again and this time we got the correct number.
With all the complaints of sightings from the crew and some of the guests, management decided to re-bless the whole trail again and this time, crew members with no religious protection of their own were given something to prevent any more bad vibes. Despite all the supernatural experiences, I enjoy playing the role of scare actor very much. I saw guests actually pee'd their clothes. There's also a macho looking guy who ran off and left his girlfriend on her own. It was always the most fun to see how those talk big, act macho guys, actually are the first to get scared. Anyway I will share again my USS experience soon. By the way my partner was a disbeliever before but this experience has made her a believer. Confession by Jeremy This happened to me many many years ago when I was 13 years old. My family and I used to live at Tampines St. 44, block 470. My dad and I did not get along well. He went away for 10 years and when he came back, he was like a stranger to me. He was also very abusive and I hated him for it. It was a dark period of my life then and I was a depressive and angsty teenager. I was sleeping alone in my room one night when I woke up suddenly and felt like I was being watched. Instinctively, I turned to my bedroom window and saw this old Malay woman with dishevelled hair wearing a white baju kurung with a sash cloth around her shoulders and holding a tongkat (walking stick). I immediately turned away and hid under my blanket. Next thing, I felt a long tongue licking my ear. I quietly prayed for the thing to go away and I think I must have blacked out from fear. I quietly prayed for the thing to go away and I think I must have blacked out from fear. Few weeks passed and I was with my grandma and her side of family who are Peranakan. I told them my encounter and they said it could be a witch as I was a virgin boy. In malay, nenek kebayan. There was also another incident in that house that took place between my mom and grandmother. Grandmother walked out of her room and saw my mom combing her hair in front of a vintage mirror that my dad had brought home. My grandmother called out to my mom but she didn't reply. Grandmother walked towards the kitchen to get some water and found my mom by the stove cooking. "Eh, how come you are here?" Grandmother asked, sensing something was amiss. "I've been here all along, cooking. Why?" My mother asked. "I thought I just saw you outside combing your hair," grandmother replied. They both ran out of the kitchen to check the mirror but found no one there. After that incident both grandmother and my mother begged my father to discard the mirror but he would hear none of it. He was drawn and attracted the mirror and insisted on keeping it at home. He was drawn and attracted the mirror and insisted on keeping it at home. There were other unexplainable occurrences that took place over the years. Such as my football moving by itself, the sound of children running around at home, and the sound of bouncing marbles in the middle of the night. There was once when I was alone at home watching television and the channel kept changing on its own to Chinese Opera. I would change to other channel but after a while, the television would automatically change back to the Chinese Opera. My parents finally sold the house and moved out a few years later. Moving out day, I felt sad and I could feel those spirits in my old unit saying farewell. Just a couple years later there was an article in the straits times of a father who killed his wife, kids and he jumped down to his death. I wonder if the entities in the house might have driven him over the edge. "Jeremy seems to have a gift to attract or see supernatural entities. His first encounter was when he was waiting for the school bus in the early morning to fetch him. He was standing at Dunmen Secondary School football field when he suddenly felt scared and looked up to see like a white cloth flying overhead and vanished into a tree." - Eugene Tay
Confession by Nor Ania It was back in the late 90s when I was working at one the shopping malls in Orchard Road during school holidays. To be specific, I worked as a waitress at Delifrance and it was rather a nice experience working there with nice and friendly people. The shop is located in the basement level and easily accessible via the Orchard MRT linkway but the restaurant is no longer there after the mall underwent a renovation.
One day, I did the evening shift and as usual, after store closing, we had to clean up the counter, tables and also to sweep and mop the floor. If I'm not mistaken, it's after 10:30pm or nearing 11pm. I needed to change out of my uniform and back to my home clothes, so I asked my manager if I could change inside the kitchen or office area as it was rather spooky to walk alone to the toilet. He disapproved of my request so being left with no choice, I walked alone to the dark, spooky toilet. Upon entering, it was very quiet and I would say gloomy. After passing by the row of mirrors and washing baisns, I had to make a left turn and decided to enter the first cubicle on my right. Before that, I noticed that both rows (left and right) of toilets were unoccupied as in the doors are all open. So into the cubicle I went. Once inside, I quickly started changing and that's when I heard it....slow knockings on the wall partition inside one of the toilet cubicles. I tried to calm myself by saying, 'Ahhh maybe it's late night reno works'. I wasted no time to change and eventually the slow knockings turned to loud banging. The doors of the other cubicles started slamming one by one. After I finished changing, I quickly unlocked my cubicle door to get out but guess what?! I was locked in!!!! I tried pulling and pushing the door but it just wouldn't open and the banging just got louder and faster. I started sobbing and squatted down to recite some prayers. Then I heard a click sound and the door unlocked and swung open on its own. I stood up and ran the hell out of there. All the while, the slamming of the cubicle doors kept going on and on. I immediately gathered my stuff from the pantry and left. I'm not sure if any of my colleagues saw me but I tendered my resignation soon after this incident. Until now, more than 20 years later, I'm still afraid of going into the toilet alone especially those in gardens and parks. Confession by Sheryl Retold by Ivan Goh, re-written by Eugene Tay Sheryl has a best friend called Lily. The two girls had made plans to travel but kept procrastinating until adult life got in the way. Sheryl got married first followed by Lily. Deciding that they should make that vacation come true before they all get too old to travel, Sheryl and Lily planned a trip to Hong Kong but this time with their respective families in tow. Sheryl brought her husband and son; Lily brought her husband. They stayed in the same hotel for five days and four nights. Sheryl and her family stayed in the room two doors left from the elevator while Lily and her husband stayed at the last room on the other end of the corridor on the right. Sheryl has the tradition of knocking the door before entering the room, as well as another tradition which I hadn't heard before, which is, after knocking, and when you open the door, you have to enter sideways, to show that you are letting whatever entity in there leave before you fully enter the room. Her husband and son however were not aware of such superstitious customs. Sheryl managed to stop her husband in time but was too late from catching her son who excitedly ran into the room. Another of Sheryl's hotel room tradition is that the first thing she does upon entering the room is to flush the toilet bowl, turn on every light, and open the curtains, cupboard and drawers; but this time exhausted from having to manage her young child while traveling, she had lapsed on this tradition. On the first night, after they had gone to bed, Sheryl was awoken by someone crying. It sounded like it came from an adult female. The sound seemed somewhat distant, and at the point of time, she thought to herself maybe it might be from the neighbouring room and the noise was likely to be from a television. She didn’t care too much about it at first until she turned to check on her family and saw her son who was sleeping between her husband and her, sitting up right, holding on to "cho-cho", his small bolster, and swinging it round and round in front of him. He looked to be in a daze. She nudged her son and the boy got startled. Sheryl asked him what happened but the boy had no recollection. It was as if he was having a dream and the memory had faded as soon as he was awake. Her son excused himself to go to the toilet. Sheryl had earlier placed her protective Buddhist pendant on the side table beside her as she had always done when she goes to bed but when she tried to reach for it she realised that it was no longer there. She quickly woke her husband up, and asked for his protective pendant, and he told her that he had placed it on his side of table just as she did, but when Sheryl searched for it, it too wasn't there. Her husband mumbled that maybe it might be in their luggage and turned back to sleep. Sheryl foraged through their luggage for her husband's pendant and found it, she wore it around her neck and clutched it to sleep. Sheryl foraged through their luggage for her husband's pendant and found it, she wore it around her neck and clutched it to sleep. Next morning, she searched the room again but still could not find her amulet. Sheryl was puzzled by the sudden disappearance. The room wasn't very big and she knew exactly where she had placed her amulet. For it to go missing like that was just bizarre. Her son and husband knew better than to be playing pranks with such religious item. She decided to continue wearing her husband's amulet throughout her stay. Fortunately the next few nights were peaceful and Sheryl had proper sleep and enjoyed herself on the holiday, but this was not the end of the story though. After they checked out of the hotel and were waiting for the flight at the airport, Sheryl's husband opened up and said that he heard a girl crying every night. When he went around to check, he couldn't find the source but it seemed to be coming from inside the room. Apparently, how the husband knew the amulet was in the luggage was that he thought he had seen Sheryl came by to his bedside and removed the amulet from the table and tucked it inside the luggage. Sheryl denied ever doing that, of course. Her husband's memory of that incident was rather hazy and he couldn't be sure if he wasn't dreaming. One thing that was undeniable however, was that her husband would wake up in the middle of the each night, during the crying girl episodes, and discover that all the lights were turned off. He knew his wife well enough to know that it was mandatory for her to leave at least some lights on. So who turned off the lights? Everything was beginning to sound weird. Lily and her husband who had been listening in all along broke their silence and said that they too had heard crying sounds every night coming from somewhere inside their room, and on one of the nights, Lily's husband felt something lying on top of him. He didn't have the strength to sit up or called for Lily. Lily on her part did not encounter anything too drastic and attributed her peaceful sleep to having followed superstitious customs while her non-asian husband scoffed at her practice and must have angered the spirits. When Sheryl pressed her husband for more answers and wondered why he never once mentioned any of this during their stay, her husband just shrugged and said that since the ghost didn't really disturb them, he was happy to just cohabit in the same place and go back to sleep. "The last time I went to New York in winter and stayed in a cheapo hotel, I thought I could hear a baby crying every thirty minutes interval, but it turned out to be the old pipes heating up and contracting. I wonder if the crying sound could be explained away the same way. As for the disappearing amulet, that's something that I have experienced personally and have no explanation for." - Eugene Tay
Confession by J Written by Eugene Tay Confessor was first introduced to me in Oct 2020 when I was researching on supernatural encounters in Punggol for a Halloween feature special. J is a Punggol resident and had a harrowing encounter at Punggol Point but was too embarrassed to talk about it on record. This is my attempt are retelling the story she shared with me. - Eugene Tay This incident took place around the beginning of the lunar seventh month as I was coming home from a birthday gathering at Punggol Point. I live relatively close by, and by close by I mean that it would take me about twenty minutes walk to get back. The alternative would be to take a Grab back but at that time of the night, ten-ish almost eleven, it's not easy to get one. I reckoned that by the time I waited to get a cab, I would have already arrived home by foot. I took the only road leading out of Punggol Point and then made a right turn to an adjoining lane. I am aware that most people who are not Punggol residents would equate this place with the supernatural because of its sordid history and colourful urban legends but if you have lived here long enough, quite frankly, the place isn't as scary as how people made it out to be. Also, I'm one of those who never read ghost stories or watch horror movies. I don't fancy the idea of paying money to scare myself silly. So for me, my first thought, even though it was the hungry ghost month, was not one of the supernatural. When Christina [a common friend] asked me to watch your YouTube channel, I politely declined. Which was why when this.. this.. whatever you call it, this haunting happened to me, it took me about a week before I realised something was very, very wrong. when this haunting happened to me, it took me about a week before I realised something was very, very wrong. On my walk back home that night, I heard the cries of what sounded like it came from a young girl. The sound seemed to be coming directly on my right, It was as if the person was standing right next to me. Initially, I brushed it off as an insect but the sound persisted and continued following me. The next part is interesting. Telling you this story is already making my hair stand. I begin to hear voices - lots of voices talking at the same time - coming from my left. The crying got even louder. I was having stereo quality haunting. There were houses around me but not a living soul in sight that could have made those noises - and mind you - they were not sounds that came from the surrounding, they were right beside me. That's when - call it natural defence mechanism kicking in - I started to panic, and for no reason, I went from curious to frightened. Not just the normal fear of the unknown; what I felt was a full blown anxiety attack. A sense of desperate urgency to run away. After that I didn't know what happened to me. When I opened my eyes next, I was lying by the side of the road looking up at faces I've never met before. When I opened my eyes next, I was lying by the side of the road looking up at faces I've never met before. Apparently I had been screaming and acting erratic before falling unconscious. A young couple living nearby came out to make sure I was looked after. I was out for less than ten minutes but I felt utterly exhausted and my body felt numb. My mind however was on high alert. It was a strange sensation though, like what my brain thought and how my body felt seemed misaligned. I went home showered and crashed. That night I encountered sleep paralysis for the first time. I saw shadow people standing in my room, around my bed. They were talking at the same time; I couldn't make out what they were saying but their chatter got increasingly louder in my head until I almost blacked out from a severe migraine. I know that if I tell people what happened to me they will think I'm just having a nightmare and they will tell me it's not real. On a logical level, I know it's not possible for it to be real, but the emotions I felt and the memories that appeared in my head were so real, so painful, that I spiralled into depression as if those thoughts were event that actually happened to me. That night and every night after for almost two weeks, I was raped in my sleep. At around 4 a.m. each night, I would wake up in fear, paralysed in bed with a blinding migraine, and then I would feel like the spirit of the crying girl was inside me struggling and screaming for help as I watch the shadow people took their turns with her, using my body. I could feel everything but I couldn't do anything. I just shut my eyes and prayed, and when it was over and when I could move again, I would wake up crying hysterically. I could feel everything but I couldn't do anything. I just shut my eyes and prayed, and when it was over and when I could move again, I would wake up crying hysterically. The first few night it happened, my husband woke up startled and tried his best to console me. I would continue crying hysterically till sunrise and then the emotions would dissipate. After the third consecutive night of this same weird encounter, we went to visit the GP to see if there was anything wrong with me. We visited three different doctors throughout the week and all of them said that physically I was fine and there were no physical evidence to explain the phantom pain I felt at night. I was afraid to go to sleep and tried to stay up but that didn't help. The more tired I was the easier it was for 'them' to take over my body. Every night at around 4 a.m. I could feel their presence around me and there's nothing I could do to prevent the episodes. By the second week, my husband was getting frustrated and told me not to talk rubbish. When faced with something he couldn't understand, his knee-jerk response was aggression. I felt alone in this and couldn't talk about it to anyone. Even if someone was willing to listen, I don't even know what it was i'm dealing with to be able to articulate my thoughts coherently. Needless to say I had no interest in intimacy whatsoever and that put a further strain on our marriage. Trust me, Googling up for help on such a topic is pointless. You won't get any answers out there on the internet. By the end of second week, I'm practically moving around half dazed from lack of sleep. At work, I still put on a front and acted professionally. Throughout the day I seemed to be getting emotions out of the blue that aren't mine. I know that because I would suddenly breakdown in the middle of the day and cried over my dead baby. I don't have a dead baby or ever had an abortion so where were these thoughts coming from?! One of my colleague apparently have the third eye. We weren't very close so it came as quite a surprise when he approached me on a Thursday afternoon to tell me that I need to take a flower bath. When I pressed for a reason, he eventually relented and said that he could see a spirit of a woman that was attached to me, hiding in my shadows. He could see a spirit of a woman that was attached to me, hiding in my shadows. I didn't know what to make of it to be honest, and at this point I was emotionally and physically exhausted. The last thing I need was for someone to come up to tell me even more problems. I did not take the flower bath as recommended but fortunately a week later, the strange nightly episodes ceased entirely, and for once, since the start of the seventh month, I slept peacefully. Life went back to normal. My husband feels that my odd behaviour and sleepless nights were just due to my hormonal changes or work related stress. I cannot shake off the uncanny coincidence that my colleague was able to pinpoint that there was a spirit of a girl following me. I certainly did not talk about my experience to anyone. So that's something I find it hard to explain. I don't necessarily practice in seventh month rituals but being Singaporean, I am aware of the taboos our grandparents told us. What are the chances that the haunting started on the first day of seventh month ended exactly on the last day? I think what happened here is that J crossed paths at an exact time where a traumatised spirit was reenacting its past and somehow got itself tangled up with J. J being a sensitive person ended up taking on the imprint of this spirit and with it, the emotions and memories that came along. - Eugene Tay
|
AuthorConfession Journal is a collection of stories and reviews submitted by the public. Archives
August 2023
Topics
All
|