More Annoyed Than Scared at Staycation Haunting

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.
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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. ​

Photo 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.

Scratches on the wall that weren't there the day before