A Hair Raising Experience (Confession Revisisted)

Confession by Chester

  
​Hello Eugene, I’ve been a big fan since SC’s early days. Never been on any 'SC Live' before but I’ve listened
to all of the Spotify podcasts multiple times. I was re-listening to podcast #119 where there was a
confession about an experience that took place on Tekong. Somehow that reminded me of a paranormal
experience I personally had about 10 years ago. I must have buried that memory in the deep recesses of
my mind but listening to that confession unlocked it somehow.

First off, I’m actually a super skeptical person and have always been on camp rational. I can assure you
that I will be the first to die in horror movies as I will always check out any weird occurrences that I
encounter just to assure myself. I admit that there have been some confessions I've heard on the podcasts
that I’ve mentally bashed in my head but kept my silence out of respect. That form of respect is definitely
much more prevalent now with this old memory being fresh in my mind again. I’ve never had any
paranormal encounters (thankfully), which is why I would say I had a paranormal ‘experience’ instead.
That said, I actually had the chance to possess physical evidence but did not think to keep it or anything. I
may be skeptical, but I’m Asian and there are superstitions that we abide by. Maybe I would have kept it if
SC had existed back then. Let me elaborate further with my story.

This happened to me when I was serving national service about 10 years ago. I was a recruit undergoing
basic military training also known as BMT at the ever so famous Pulau Tekong. I can’t remember which
school I was at, but my company building was near the swimming complex and also relatively near the
cookhouse.
                 Anyway, I recall my bunk being on the 3rd floor of the building. It was also the closest to the
toilet. I shared a bunk bed with my buddy next to the window (the kind that had window panes) facing the
long corridor and I took the bottom bed.

Not sure if this happened for everyone but when you need to get up in the middle of the night to pee, most
people if not everyone would wake up their buddies to go together. It was kind of an understood thing. But
being the rational sort and a super nice guy, I would usually go on my own with the IDGAF (I don’t give a
fuck) mentality. I think it was also because I drink a lot of water on a regular basis so I felt bad if I had to
wake my buddy up all the time.

So here’s how I think. I’ve always felt that the fear of the paranormal lies in the mindset. Like if you keep
feeling afraid, assuming there are “things” around, you’d definitely feel spooked about every little thing
you hear or see. So, as long as you have a super chill mentality and not think about it, you’ll be fine – at
least that’s how it works for me. I do sometimes get that feeling of fear for no reason but I just credit it to
me being irrational and not thinking straight. I'll calm myself down by checking my surroundings,
following which I'll not see or hear anything abnormal.

However, there was this one time, relatively near the beginning of my BMT period. Can’t remember what
time it was exactly but I got the feeling to pee just like any other time. Before I continue, let me give you a
brief description of the layout of the toilet. When you first enter the toilet, you will see a couple of basins
and mirrors on a wall. Turn right and you will see a row of urinals facing the direction of the basins and
mirrors, another wall separating the urinals and cubicles and a gap in between these two walls to get to
the cubicles. I would typically go to the far end of the toilet (walking past the gap between the two walls) to
pee as my rational mind was telling me that I would have at least my left side covered with a wall and I
would only need to check my right side if I hear or feel anything strange while peeing. I know it’s hard to
imagine but if I turned to look behind, I would be looking straight at the 2nd wall with the cubicles behind
it.

So there I was peeing mid-stream and feeling nothing out of the ordinary (no feeling of fear
whatsoever) when I suddenly heard something drop with a loud thud. It sounded quite near to me, like it
came from one of the cubicles directly behind me but I couldn’t see anything because of the wall. I
remember chills going down my spine at that point and in my head, I was going “shit shit shit faster
peeee”. It felt like forever but when I was finally done and keeping my pecker, I decided to let out a firm
“Hello? Someone there?” but didn’t get any response.

I wasn’t sure what to make of that so me being me, I decided to take a quick look. So I creeped to the
corner of the gap of the wall and took a quick peek. I saw a rather large bottle of soap (not those travel
pack kind) lying on its side outside one of the cubicles situated near the far end and immediately ‘noped’
the hell out of there. I know it’s normal for us to leave soap bottles in the cubicles and that sometimes they
move because of residue soap on whatever surface they sit on. But the sound I heard was relatively loud.
Besides how the hell did the bottle get all that momentum to end up outside the cubicle? I only heard one
sound like when you release something from your hand and it drops straight on the floor, and not
multiple sounds as if the bottle traveled some distance and rolled or tumbled around.
                I washed my hands really quickly, jabbing down on the tap button, putting my hands through the
running water once and got out of there. I walked briskly to my bunk, laid down on my bed, plugged in my
earphones blasting trance music, and just planted my eyes on the window. I figured if something was
going to appear, I'd be around people and wouldn’t be cornered alone, not like how I was in the toilet. I
half expected something or someone to appear in the window but didn’t see anything for god knows how
long and eventually fell asleep.

But that’s not the end of the story. We'd usually wake up quite early in the morning, when it was still dark.
The ones that got up earlier wouldn't switch on the lights till the very last minute as it was quite annoying
to those still asleep. I woke up a bit later than usual as I was quite tired from that ordeal the night before
but rushed to get ready so as not to get my butt plugged by my commanders. I hurriedly put on my
uniform. I remember the lights being switched on as I stepped out to go to the toilet. I went to the toilet
with no incident (not even thinking about what happened last night as I was more annoyed with the fact
that I had no time to brush my teeth), and rushed down to fall in. We went on with our training and that
was that.

​When we were finally done with morning training and got back to our bunks ready for a breather before
lunch, that was when I saw it. Lying on my unmade bed were a few strands of long, black hair. I picked
them up and held them to my face, inspecting them curiously. I was initially quite chill about it, thinking
that it could have been someone like a female superior from HQ or something, or even a cleaner that came
to our bunks while we were out training. But a split second later, it then occurred to me “Eh wtf, there are
no cleaners here! We’re expected to clean our shit ourselves. The only female company in the school is
quite a distance away near the ferry terminal. There are no female superiors in my company and we’re all
botak! Even if it was a female superior, was it such a coincidence that a few strands of hair would have
fallen right on my bed and not anywhere else?”. I even took the broom in the bunk to compare and it was
definitely not from there.

I showed my buddy the hair and he just went “Wtf?”. I could tell that he wasn’t too excited about it so I
threw it away in the black trash bag we tied to the front of the door for all our trash. I didn’t want to scare
my other bunk mates so I didn’t say anything about it and was sure someone would have said something
first if they had found hair on their beds. And since that incident, I would still get these strands of hair to
appear on my bed occasionally (in Tekong only). But as our training got progressively tougher so did my
tolerance for the paranormal. We would be dead tired at the end of every single day. I remember I'd be too
tired to pay any heed to the strands of hair and would just clear it like it was rubbish. I still went to the
toilet by myself but did not hear any weird sounds anymore or perhaps I was too tired to give a damn. I
didn’t mention this to anyone else, even during the weekends when I booked out cause it didn’t have any
effect on me at all and I believe I had better things to do back then than to worry about things that don’t
“exist”.

But now, years later with this memory resurfacing, I cringe at the possibility of something or someone
overlooking me while I slept all those nights during BMT. I type this recount with tears welling up my eyes
as perhaps I was too young back then to comprehend what I was dealing with. However, I wonder why I
wasn’t directly affected by whatever it was. I can only attribute it to the fact that my mom is a stoic
buddhist with my house being home to multiple Buddha statues. I remember I was also given some sort of
Buddha charm so as rational and un-superstitious as I tend to be, I’d like to think that Buddha was
protecting me and that thing or person couldn’t harm me. Perhaps pulling their hair out of frustration but
not going away without at least leaving a message to ensure I acknowledged its presence.

​I swear I would have kept the hairs if SC had existed back then but then again, that was not really a good
idea, right? The rest of my time in NS went on without incident so this was the only time. I know I did not
actually “see” anything, but I 100%, for sure held those strands of hair in my hands (on multiple
occasions) all those years ago. Was I so afraid of the fact that the paranormal could possibly exist that I
just remained in denial all this time, even today?